Born: August 21, 1877 in Montreal, Canada
Died: July 23, 1961
Married: Dr. Woods Price in Montreal on September 3, 1919
Sophia Hoerner Price was the head nurse at the Reception Hospital. For her service overseas, her name is inscribed on the village World War I Veterans memorial.
"There were five superintendents [of the Reception Hospital/ Prescott House] in the forty-eight years, all of whom became good friends of mine. The first was a young Canadian nurse, Miss Sophie M. Hoerner, who didn't know much more about housekeeping than I did about bookkeeping, but we learned our jobs together. She gladdened our hearts — the patients' and mine — with her youthful enthusiasm until, after fifteen years service, Canada called her to the first World War." Mary Prescott, "A Confession of Faith in an Age of Doubt," pp 13-14.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, July 24, 1961
Mrs. 'Sophie' Price's Death Marks Loss of Good Friend
BY JACK DELEHANT
One of Saranac Lake's final links with the era when the village was one of the leading health centers of the world, Mrs. Sophia Price, widow of Dr. J. Woods Price, died early Sunday morning after an illness of about ten days. She was 85.
Her body is at her home at 116 Main Street, Saranac Lake, where friends may call. Private services will be held Tuesday. The Rev. Peter O. Hill, rector of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Saranac Lake will officiate. Burial will be in Pine Ridge Cemetery.
Mrs. Price was born in Montreal, August 21, 1876, a daughter of David and Mary Cooper Hoerner. She attended schools in that city and following her graduation as a nurse from the Montreal General Hospital she came to Saranac Lake. She accepted a position with the new Reception Center which opened in 1905 under the direction of Miss Mary Prescott and for the next ten years worked closely with the late Dr. Edward R. Baldwin, chairman of the board of the Center in the operation of the tuberculosis hospital.
With the outbreak of the war in Europe in 1914, Miss Hoerner returned to Montreal where she joined with the McGill (Montreal) medical unit and for the next four years she served overseas in hospital tents which were pitched on the front lines. The extent of her work and its importance can best be judged by the fact that she was decorated by King George V for her service rendered the English and Canadian causes of the European battlefields. She was again decorated in 1919 by the Prince of Wales for her valiant service at a special investiture held in Montreal by the prince.
With the armistice, Miss Hoerner returned to Montreal and following her discharge from the unit, again took up her duties in Saranac Lake. It was at this time that she met Dr. Price who had come to the village as a patient and the couple were married in Montreal on Sept. 3, 1919. Dr. Price opened his practice in Saranac Lake and was one of the area's leading chest physicians. He died in February 1951. Following her husband's death, Mrs. Price continued to live alone in her home where she died quietly yesterday morning after suffering a heart attack last week.
Although she lived alone in her large home, she was far from a recluse, for she had a host of friends who were continually "dropping in" to see if there might be something they might do for "Sophie" as she was known. However, Mrs. Price was sprightly of motion and mind, possessed a fine sense of humor and almost to the day of her death displayed a spirit of independence which included conducting her own shopping. Mrs. Price and her cane were a familiar sight in the business areas of the village as she pursued her shopping chores or stopped to chat with one of her many friends. Despite her age, she was a lively and pert individual who loved life, who opened every day with a bright "good morning" to everyone. She was beloved not only by her friends but by the many patients placed in her care during her career as a nurse.
Mrs. Price was a gracious individual in every phase of living and her death brings to a close one of the last professional associations with the heyday of Saranac Lake's medical past when it was a haven for many thousands of patients who were victims of tuberculosis.
She is survived by a brother, Charles Hoerner of Toronto; a nephew, Kirk Hoerner of Montreal and a niece, Mrs. O'Neill (Joan) O'Higgins of Ottawa.
