Edith Mapp Brimm, pioneering Black nurse and matriarch of medical family, dies at 94

Edith Mapp Brimm, 94, formerly of Camden, a pioneering Black nurse who, with much grace and dignity, overcame racism, physical ailments, family hardship, and countless economic challenges, died Tuesday, Dec. 14, of aspiration pneumonia at Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital.

Mrs. Brimm was the first Black licensed practical nurse to work at Camden’s old West Jersey Hospital in the early 1950s. She later overcame uterine and colon cancer, and was separated from her husband for months at a time because he couldn’t go to school where she lived due to racial enrollment quotas, and she couldn’t work where he went to school due to employment restrictions.

And when her husband needed money for college tuition, and a loan to kick-start his medical practice, it was Mrs. Brimm who stepped up. “She was a strong woman” said her daughter, Linda. “When anyone was having a bad day, she would always say, ‘And this, too, shall pass.’”

Mrs. Brimm was married for more than 60 years to the flamboyant Charles E. Brimm, a popular family doctor in Camden who made house calls, served on the Camden City Council, and for whom the Dr. Charles E. Brimm Medical Arts High School is named. He died in 2010.

They were, their children said, an ideal couple.

“They complemented each other,” said son Charles Jr.

“They led extraordinary lives,” said their daughter, “and we were lucky to have them as parents.”

Mrs. Brimm graduated from nursing school at St. Joseph’s College in New York, and married her husband in 1949. Over the next six years, she helped him as he graduated with a bachelor’s degree and then a medical degree from the University of Ottawa in Canada.

She tried to stay in Canada while he attended school but was unable to obtain legal working credentials. So she visited him when she could, and returned to Camden to work as a nurse at West Jersey Hospital and later Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital.

When her husband returned with his medical degree in 1955, Mrs. Brimm got a loan to pay for an office on Kaighns Avenue in Camden, and worked with him for two years to get the practice established. At first, they lived in an apartment over the office, and later moved to nearby Park Boulevard.

In the late 1970s, when her children were in high school, Mrs. Brimm enrolled at Stockton State College, now Stockton University, and earned a bachelor’s degree in social work. She went on to help families, the elderly, and others in need at several local counseling centers throughout the 1980s and ’90s.

Born Oct. 15, 1927, in Camden, the youngest of 10 children, Edith Mapp grew up on Walnut Street, graduated from Camden High School, and met her future husband in the neighborhood when they were young.

They adopted their son and daughter as newborns in 1957 and 1960, respectively, and Mrs. Brimm put her nursing career aside for the next decade to raise them. She stressed the importance of education and hard work, sent them to summer camps in the mountains, got them jobs at church food banks, and helped them learn to deal with and understand racism and disappointment.

“She was consistent, steady, and reliable,” said her son.

“She was the kindest, sweetest individual you could ever know,” said her daughter.

Mrs. Brimm was a member of The Links, Incorporated, and Jack and Jill of America Inc., and she attended St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church in Camden for more than 85 years. She enjoyed watching the Eagles and 76ers, and afterward liked to hash over the games with her son and best friend, Jean Helton.

She cooked a memorable fried chicken, and rarely missed a TV episode of The Young and the Restless or Judge Judy. She liked to dress up, play the slots at the Atlantic City casinos, and catch the latest shows in New York. She moved to an apartment in Cherry Hill in 2014.

In an online tribute, friends called Mrs. Brimm “a Camden icon,” a “beautiful person,” and a “great lady.”

In addition to her children, Mrs. Brimm is survived by a grandson and other relatives. Five brothers and four sisters died earlier.

Services were private.

.