Interview with Katie McGready

An oral history interview with Mary Catherine Bussey Boice (Katie) McGready, the first medical librarian in the Texas Medical Center, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas. Mary Catherine Bussey Boice “Katie” McGready became the first medical librarian in the Texas Medical Center when Dr. Ernst W. Bertner asked to her to begin the medical library at what was then the fledgling MD Anderson Cancer Center. She was among the first employees at the Cancer Center, then located at “The Oaks,” the estate of the late Colonel James A. Baker at 2310 Baldwin Street in Houston. Born in rural Timpson, Texas, she was the only daughter with four brothers – two older and one younger. Her journey from running the soda fountain in her father’s drugstore to several jobs in the nascent Texas Medical Center reflects not only the early days there but also the lives of young women in Texas in the early 20th century. She married twice – first to Dr. Edward Henry “Ned” Boice, whom she met when she was learning medical librarian duties at The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. They had five children – Betsy McPhaden of Seattle, Bill Boice of Atlanta, Peggy Boice of Houston, Cathy Bacon of Houston and Jim Boice of Austin. Later, as a widow, she married Frances Cornelius “Mac” McGready, which whom she lived many happy years before his death in 2009