F: Flanders to Franklin

Flanders, Bessie
Bessie Flanders is a nurse anaesthetist who joins the Spencer unit. Six feet tall and heavily built--a "veritable Amazon" (Chief Nurse, p. 87)--with fine fair hair, blue eyes, and a likable face, she repeatedly pokes fun at her size and her appearance, but secretly feels self-conscious, and decides to go on a crash diet. Cherry convinces her that her ideas about her looks are all wrong. "Why, Bessie every girl has her own kind of good looks ... there's no one standard for beauty, you see. There are all kinds of beauty ..." (pp. 114-15).

Fortune, Dr. Joseph
Cherry's mentor, Dr. Joseph Fortune, is the doctor who delivered twins Cherry and Charlie. Affectionately called Dr. Joe, he inspired Cherry to become a nurse.

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While Cherry was in high school, Dr. Joe's wife, Molly, died, and he gave up his medical practice to devote himself to research. He has a "sensitive face," "deeply seamed ... with a child's wondering eyes. His shock of thick gray hair and slight figure were like a boy's" (Student Nurse, p. 10). Dr. Joe is quite prominent in the early books of the series; his drug research is a central element to the mystery-adventure aspects of Student Nurse, Senior Nurse, and Army Nurse; and he is responsible for Cherry becoming involved in mysteries in Flight Nurse and Private Duty Nurse. After that he becomes less important in the series, though he is still featured in most of the books, and in Island Nurse, he is responsible for Cherry taking a position as the private nurse for his old friend, Sir Ian Barclay. He also figures in several stories in the annuals, arranging private duty cases for Cherry (for example, The Playhouse Mystery").

Fortune, Midge
Madcap Midge is Dr. Joe's teenage daughter, thirteen years old at the start of the series; she ages to sixteen in the first few books, then stays a high school student for the rest of the series. Her real name is Margaret, and she briefly calls herself Madge. However, in Clinic Nurse, Cherry calls her "Marjorie Fortune" (p. 85).

"Her face, with its shining eyes, tilted nose, and wide shapely mouth, seemed always to be laughing" (Senior Nurse, p. 72); she has light brown hair and hazel eyes. She is featured in many books in the series, most prominently in Veterans' Nurse, in which she attempts to use feminine wiles to ensnare an unsuspecting potential suitor; Night Supervisor, in which she engages in matchmaking while working as a hospital volunteer under Cherry's supervision (she also works as a volunteer under Cherry in Rest Home Nurse and Staff Nurse); and Clinic Nurse, in which she and her friends put on a melodrama to raise money for needy patients. Midge moans, "It's all too difficult ... How can I possibly write, direct, and produce a play in which I have the lead and keep house for my father at the same time?" (Clinic Nurse, p. 204).

In "The Pinafore Club," Midge is only fourteen and bored for the summer till she becomes a hospital volunteer on Men's Orthopedic Ward at Hilton Hospital, working with Cherry and pursuing a new beau with single-minded zeal.

Franklin, Josie
Eyeglass-wearing and plain, Josie Franklin, a member of the Spencer Club, is earnest and timid, but a capable nurse. She is assigned to the same ward as Cherry for their first hospital duty when they are student nurses. She and Gwen Jones work with Cherry in several of the books (At Spencer, Dude Ranch Nurse, Rest Home Nurse), and she and Gwen both take postgraduate courses (Mountaineer Nurse). Her beau is Dr. Johnny Brent (Visiting Nurse, Country Doctor's Nurse, "Christmas in New York"). She later does private duty nursing (Companion Nurse), then general duty nursing at a small hospital in New York City (The Mystery in the Doctor's Office).

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