‘Fifth Little Girl’ in 1963 Birmingham church bombing and nurse reunite after 6 decades

Barnett Wright | The Birmingham TimesWhen an initially blinded, and nearly lifeless, 12-year-old girl found in the rubble of a church bombing was wheeled onto the 10th floor of University Hospital in Birmingham nearly 60 years ago, one of the first people to tend to the child was Rosetta “Rose” Hughes, a nurse on the floor.

“When I saw her that Sunday, … she was just covered with soot and ashes [and blood],” Hughes recalled in an exclusive interview with The Birmingham Times. “[It] looked like she was gone. … I thought she wasn’t going to wake up. … She was not moving.”Birmingham will commemorate the explosion that proved to be a turning point in the Civil Rights Movement

“It’s more than a blessing to meet her because she took care of me,” Collins-Rudolph said during the interview. “When I was younger, I didn’t know how she looked or anything because I was practically blind then. So, just to see her now and know her is a blessing. She’s looking real good.”Hughes recalled working on the 10th floor of University Hospital, which was known as the “Eye” floor, on Sunday, Sept. 15, 1963, when young Sarah was wheeled in.

“It was a Sunday morning, and the doctor’s wife had gone to church, so he was watching the baby and had to bring him [to the hospital]. … I babysat while [Dr. Pearson] checked on Sarah,” Hughes recalled. “I know when the doctor operated on my eyes, they put this bandage on it. … Maybe about a week later, they took the bandage off. At first, the doctor asked me, ‘What do you see out of your left eye?’ I told him, ‘I just see a little light.’ He asked me the same question [about my right eye]. I said, ‘I can’t see anything.’ So, he said I was blinded instantly in my right eye.

Collins-Rudolph called on the state of Alabama to issue a formal apology and compensate her “to right the wrongs that its past leaders encouraged and incited,” she said. “When Sunday school ended, [Addie Mae and I] were still in the ladies’ lounge, but [our older sister], Junie, had gone to her class,” Collins-Rudolph said. “I was waiting for class to [end], and I saw [Carole, Denise, and Cynthia] come in. We stayed in with them. They went and used the restrooms, while Addie and I were standing in the lounge. She was standing right by the couch, and the couch was right where they had placed the bomb.

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