"We're not going to drift apart again. I've missed you kids like anything. So I propose--uh--I declare us the Spencer Club! As of this moment."
--From Cherry Ames, Private Duty Nurse, p. 105
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S: Schwartz to Swift
Schwartz, Ruth
Young Ruth Schwartz is the head nurse on the Emergency Ward. Cherry thinks she's tough and unfeeling, but Miss Schwartz reminds her that "a nurse must translate her pity into action. And we have to keep calm and cheerful for the other patients" (Student Nurse, p. 129).
Shore, P.
Miss P. Shore is one of Cherry's Spencer classmates. The probationer assigned to the students' first ward duty with Ann Evans (Student Nurse), she is never mentioned again.
Smith, Bunce
One of Cherry's corpsmen when she becomes an army nurse, Bunce Smith is tall and lanky, addicted to mischief, with light brown hair, a slow grin, and a mouth full of chewing gum. Cherry tries to reform him, with partial success, and he is eventually accepted for medical technician training (Army Nurse). Later, he is assigned to her team when she becomes a flight nurse (Flight Nurse).
Smith, Jane
Jane Smith, a patient who requires a difficult operation, owns and operates the Wayside Inn near Hilton; she is persuaded to allow several older people to open and run the Wayside while she is hospitalized, benefiting both herself and them (Clinic Nurse). Later, Jane converts the Wayside into a rest home where Cherry becomes the nursing supervisor, with Gwen and Josie as the nursing staff (Rest Home Nurse).
Spencer Club
Cherry, Ann, Gwen, Josie, Bertha, Mai Lee, Vivian, and Marie all attend nursing school at Spencer and, with the other members of their class, join the Army Nurse Corps after graduation. They split up when Cherry, Ann, and Gwen train to become flight nurses, but Cherry, Gwen, Josie, Bertha, and Mai Lee later reunite and form the Spencer Club. These five, joined by Vivian, rent an apartment at No. 9 Standish Street in Greenwich Village and become Visiting Nurses. They keep the apartment as their "headquarters" throughout the rest of the series, though at times they all leave to take various nursing jobs elsewhere.
Sprague, Miss
When Cherry and Gwen are assigned to the Delivery Room, they must cope with Miss Sprague, the flinty head nurse. She refers to her student nurses as "those young snips" (Senior Nurse, p. 61) and is renowned for sending in severe reports on the students. On Cherry's first case, Miss Sprague is furious because she mistakenly thinks Cherry has hinted for a gift from a new father. After a gloomy month, Cherry and Gwen are thankful to be "out of Sprague's clutches at last!" (p. 77). Miss Sprague seems a lot less forbidding when Cherry returns to Spencer as a full-fledged registered nurse (At Spencer).
Stanley, Gerald
Gerald Stanley collapses in front of the Wayside Rest Home just as Cherry arrives for work one morning, falling on and injuring his left wrist. Overweight, prone to temper tantrums, and highly nervous, he refuses to relinquish his locked briefcase. He becomes increasingly upset as a string of odd gifts arrives, all connected with the word "Sesame," and seems to be hiding. Can he be responsible for the disappearance of a lantern, a cache of food, a can opener, and a child's spaceman goggles? (Rest Home Nurse).
Stevenson, S.
Miss S. Stevenson is one of Cherry's Spencer classmates. She is the probationer assigned to the students' first ward duty, on Ward 23, with Gwen Jones (Student Nurse), but she is never mentioned again.
Sully, Madame Blanche
With her artificially red hair and imperious manner, former actress Madame Sully flamboyantly sweeps into Eagle's Peak and bestows a withering glance on Cherry. La Sully has not appeared on the stage in years, but claims she is between engagements while she rests. She tries to avoid Cherry and even claims that Cherry stole her gold bracelet watch--which was planted in Cherry's room (Ski Nurse Mystery).
Swift, Marie
A rich blond girl from San Francisco, Marie Swift is considered a member of the Spencer Club, though she does not appear as a character in any book past Chief Nurse, until she suddenly pops up as a married woman living in Switzerland and helps Cherry get a job at a ski resort (Ski Nurse Mystery). She must have had a whirlwind courtship, for in The Mystery in the Doctor's Office, she is on a private duty case in Boston at the end of May, but by October she is married and living in Switzerland. She is mentioned frequently throughout the series. Marie is unable to join the others as Visiting Nurses in New York because she elects to take care of her mother, "who was undergoing a long illness" (Visiting Nurse, p. 24); she is on vacation in Companion Nurse.