Courage in a White Coat

Prison camp, starvation, execution...all threaten her little family.

A true wartime drama based on the experience of Dorothy Joy Kinney Chambers M.D. and her family.

This sweeping biographical novel brings to life the dramatic experience of a valiant woman who, armed only with the white coat of her profession, found the courage to live her life on the razor's edge and survived it. It's a captivating story of service and sacrifice, of love and the searing emotions that gripped this missionary doctor throughout her imperiled course.

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"A lovely story of an extraordinary woman! The use of contemporary sources adds authenticity to an ordeal that could be overwhelming in its grimness were it not described so vividly and poetically." -Dorey Schmidt, Ph.D.
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Dorothy Kinney had found herself in remote India in 1928, a medical missionary charged with building up a hospital for the women and children of Assam. The fledgling doctor began her practice in Gauhati, where her surgeries were performed by the light of a kerosene lamp in an open-air clinic with no electricity, no running water, and no sewer system. She left it ten years later a fully functioning modern hospital, with running water, electricity, and the complete devotion of the people of Assam.

It was there she fell in love.

Pregnant with their second child, Dorothy, her missionary husband Fred Chambers, and their daughter Carol Joy, set out on a voyage that would take them to their new missionary post in Iloilo, on the Philippine island of Panay. One day later War was declared in Europe.

She could not know that by the time her unborn baby turned eighteen months old her little family would be swept into a Japanese internment camp. With four thousand other prisoners of war she struggled to feed her little family in the prison at Santo Tomas, a place where hundreds died and most suffered starvation, until General MacArthur and his Flying column swept in with their daring raid to liberate the camp.

Many remember Dorothy Chambers in her white coat of courage, doctoring the children of the camp, never knowing that her little family would come within just twenty-four hours of execution.

This is her story.
About the Author: Granddaughter of a concert violinist, MARY POTTER SCHWANER began her musical career in elementary school with the family string quartet, but gave up the violin to study opera at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She devoted much time in her early career to performing, directing and promoting musical endeavors throughout Alabama, California and Nebraska. She was Founder/Artistic Director of the Young People's Pocket Opera in Alabama. A move to California resulted in four years as Founder/Artistic Director of the Lake Forest Showboaters, a community music theatre company. In Mary's "other life" she was a computer tech support and graphic arts specialist and worked as Web Developer for the Nebraska Legislature, HDR Architecture and Engineering, for The National Arbor Day Foundation, and as Director of Web and Media Arts for St. Mark's United Methodist Church. In her retirement she is a published author, writing novels of historical suspense under the name Bailey Bristol. Courage in a White Coat is her first biographical novel. She lives in Nebraska with her husband of nearly five decades and joins him in doting on her grandchildren who, along with their parents-Ryan and Melissa and their spouses-are her dearest treasure. Mary's enduring motto remains: "May you have the vision and the voice to find new songs to sing."