Josephine Cox "Grandma" Anderson

Josephine Anderson came to Eddy in 1888, when it was mud streets, bars and a tent city on the Pecos, and she was an artist as much as a nurse: she painted a mural for a church altar and kept painting until her eyesight failed. When her own house filled with patients, her husband built her a twenty-six-room sanatorium. In the 1918 epidemic she cared for sixty patients and lost none; with her daughter she ran the sanatorium for twenty years and lived in it until she died in 1941.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Josephine Cox "Grandma" Anderson The Angel of the Pecos (1849-1941) During the terrible "la grippe" flu epidemic of 1918, Grandma fearlessly led other women in nursing and feeding the sick in tents and shacks along the banks of the Pecos River. She did not lose a single patient, later opening a sanatorium in Carlsbad. Humanitarian, nurse, teacher; she earned the nickname "The Angel of the Pecos." Official Scenic Historic Marker New Mexico Historic Women Marker Initiative The New Mexico Historic Women Marker Initiative was founded in 2005 by members of the New Mexico Women's Forum in a statewide effort to recognize women's contributions to New Mexico history on the state's Official Scenic Historic Markers. The Initiative ensures that women's diverse histories will be remembered and told, and will inspire and provide a guide for future generations. The 2006 Legislature funded the project.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Living Desert Zoo and Gardens State Park — 2.7 mi
  A zoo and garden of the Chihuahuan Desert on the Ocotillo Hills above Carlsbad, whose animals are injured or orphaned wildlife that cannot go back to the wild.
• Carlsbad Caverns National Park — 22 mi
  The way into the cave has changed four times: a guano miner's bucket, a wooden staircase, a 750-foot elevator, and now a timed ticket and a switchback trail down the natural entrance.

More markers nearby

• Mother Magdalen and the Sisters of Loretto (1852-1968) / Carlsbad — steps away
• Carlsbad Irrigation Flume — 3.0 mi
• Civilian Conservation Corps Carlsbad Campsite — 3.0 mi
• Carlsbad Irrigation Flume — 3.1 mi