Appoline Alexander Blair
Appoline Agatha Alexander Blair was an American philanthropist, hospital founder, and wife of Senator Francis Preston Blair, Jr. In 1878, after losing two children to illness, Blair gathered a group of 20 prominent women and organized the St. Louis Children's Hospital, for which she served as the first president of the Board of Managers. In addition to the St. Louis Children's Hospital, she is sometimes credited with the creation of the St. John's Medical Center in Joplin, Missouri, in 1896.
