TCU-trained nurses went on to make their marks — both locally and nationally.

Laguna became the first Hispanic nurse in the Fort Worth Independent School District in 1979; the work allowed her to stay home during the summer with her children.

That was important to Lara, who recalls being unhappy while her mother was studying for her degree. “I was a teenager, and I was so jealous,” Lara said. “Now I can appreciate the person she was. Any time anybody needed anything, Spanish-speaking or medical, she was right there. She was always in the community wanting to help people.”

Laguna’s nursing career included medical trips abroad, including to her late father’s birthplace in Panuco, Veracruz, Mexico. “How proud he would be if he knew I was going back to his hometown to help his people,” she said.

Laguna retired in 1998, having founded a nursing dynasty: Lara also became a nurse, as has Lara’s daughter.

As TCU’s pioneering Black student and faculty member, Jones mentored generations of nursing students during her three-decade teaching career; her portrait graces the Annie Richardson Bass Building today. She died in 2015.

Johnson, who died in January 2024, became the first nurse elected to Congress in 1992; she represented the 30th Congressional District of Texas for two decades. Johnson was also the first Black woman to win elected office in Dallas, the city’s first Black state senator since Reconstruction and the first Black woman to head the House Science Committee, according to The New York Times.

Goff went on to earn master’s degrees in education and in health law and a doctorate in conflict analysis and resolution. She forged a prestigious 26-year career with the U.S. Public Health Service, investigating outbreaks of anthrax, polio and Ebola. She retired with the rank of captain.

“I called Allene Jones, and I said, ‘I want you to know that I just made the cover of two nursing magazines, and I want you to know that it’s because of you and what happened to me at TCU,’ ” Goff said. “ ‘What I’ve gotten from TCU is the foundation on which I built my career, where I am today.’ And I thanked her.”