It was sad news on Monday, March 29^th, when South Central Regional Medical Center’s Linda Gavin, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development and Karen Vanderslice, Community Health Coordinator, heard the news about the death of Patty Duke. They reminisced about having Duke as the keynote speaker at the hospital’s Women’s Life Conference in 2007.

Vanderslice said Duke’s platform at the conference centered around her childhood, her rise to fame and her struggles in life with bipolar disorder. “She was ahead of her time,” Vanderslice said. “She was the first celebrity we had who talked about the importance of the diagnosis and treatment of behavioral health disorders,” she said. “And she was the first celebrity to talk openly to the press and others about the disorder.”

Gavin said, “At the time she spoke at our conference and for years prior to that, there was a stigma associated with mental health related conditions, some which still remain today. Patty Duke paved the way for open and honest communication and I know thousands must have sought help as a result of her message.”

“Patty Duke was one of my favorite actresses of all times,” Gavin said. “I rarely missed watching anything she did.”

At noted in her biography on her public web site, Patty Duke’s career spanned six decades and she continued to thrive long after many of her contemporaries had retired. She conquered Broadway, film and television. In 1959 she made her Broadway debut in The Miracle Worker, the powerful story of Helen Keller and her teacher, Annie Sullivan (portrayed by Anne Bancroft). The show ran for nearly two years and a twelve-year-old Patty Duke won the Theatre World Award as “Most Promising Newcomer.”

Soon after The Miracle Worker closed on Broadway, Ms. Duke and Ms. Bancroft both reprized their roles in the motion picture version and each won Oscars. Patty Duke’s win as Best Supporting Actress made her, at the time, the youngest Academy Award winner in history. Ms. Duke also won a Golden Globe Award for her performance.

Coming off her Oscar win, she played genetically unexplainable identical cousins on The Patty Duke Show from 1963 to 1966. The show was a top-rated program and brought Duke her first Emmy nomination. Patty Duke also entered the history books as the youngest person (16) ever to have a show bearing her full name. In addition, she became a Billboard top-ten singer with the recording of her hit song, “Don’t Just Stand There.”

By 1967, Patty Duke wanted to shed her good girl image. She won the part of cross-addicted Neely O’Hara in the camp classic Valley of the Dolls. The film was a huge box office success and remains a favorite to this day.

Over the next several years Ms. Duke appeared in Me, Natalie (Golden Globe Award), and became the first actress ever to win an Emmy for a TV-Movie for My Sweet Charlie. She won her second Emmy for Captains and the Kings and her third for her masterful portrayal of Annie Sullivan in the television remake of The Miracle Worker. She received 9 additional nominations for her roles in television movies. Ms. Duke also appeared in more than 90 TV and theatrical movies.

In addition to her acting, she became the second woman to ever be elected president of The Screen Actors Guild, which is the fifth largest labor union in the United States. She also became, twice, a New York Times best-selling author with the publication of her autobiography, Call Me Anna, and its follow up, A Brilliant Madness, both which detail her harrowing childhood, rise to fame and diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder. A television adaptation of Call Me Anna was later produced with Duke portraying herself.

She also starred in several stage productions including The Glass Menagerie; Follies; Gypsy, and in a return to the Broadway stage, Oklahoma, and recently finished a yearlong run in San Francisco production of “Wicked”, as Madame Morrible.

Ms. Duke loved teaching drama at the University of Idaho and tutor sessions. She was honored to have received two, PHD’s, first from University of North Florida and the second, from University of Maryland, Eastern Shores.

At 65 years old, she was still eager to play roles encompassing the aging process. Duke has directed a tremendous hit of the stage version of the Miracle Worker in Spokane at the Interplayers Theater. She continued to travel the country to speak about mental illness.

“The diagnosis and treatment of mental health related disorders is so important. It is like our certified professional counselor at South Central Behavioral Health Services, Rhonda McNair, has said many times. The brain is just another organ of the body. Sometimes it needs treatment just like the heart, lungs, and kidneys. So why then is it the last thing we seek care for when we know something is just not right?” According to McNair, medication and/or talk therapy is sometimes all that is required and your quality of life can be improved significantly.

South Central has been recognized as a leader in community health and outreach programs for years. The Medical Center was the first hospital in the state to host a large women’s conference featuring a celebrity speaker.

“Patty Duke will always be one of our favorite keynote speakers. She will be greatly missed,” Gavin concluded.

South Central Regional Medical Center’s first conference was held in 1990, and plans are being made now for the 2017 event set for the last Saturday in April at Jones Junior College. More information will be released later about the keynote speaker and other plans for the event.