Private funeral services will be held-Wednesday for Dr. Ruth Gertrude Aleman one~oF the city's outstanding pediatricians. Dr. Aleman, 66, only woman physician ever to head the staff of Hotel'Dieu, died early Tuesday morning. She had been ill several months.
Final rites will consist of a Requiem Mass at Mater Dolo-rosa church. Dr. Aleman's cousin, the lit. Rev. Msgr. Vernon P. Aleman, will officiate. Interment will be in St. Louis No. 3 cemetery. Pallbearers will be Dr. J. M. Perret Jr., Dr. William Perret, John Perret, Paul Perret, Dr. James Thomas Perret, Henry
C. Perret and Slattery R. Ale-man. All are Dr. Aleman's nephews.
A leader in religious as well as in medical circles, Dr. Ale-man was highly honored in 1947 by the late Pope Pius XII. The Pope conferred upon her the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice, an award to outstanding Catholics in recognition for services to the church.
BORN ON PLANTATION
Born on a sugar plantation in Belle Alliance, La., Dr. Ale-
man was th/» rtanchtpr nf thp
late Camille Rudolph Aleman and Malvina Maurin Sharp Ale-man. The plantation was part of an original land grant by the King of Spain to Dr. Aleman's maternal ancestor, Don Juan Vive s, a physician from Valencia, Spain.
Dr. Aleman was educated in the public schools of Assumption parish and in Donaldsonville. Later she was graduated as a nurse from Hotel Dieu. During World r War I, she served in France as an army nurse with the American Expeditionary Forces.
After the war, she continued her education at Loyola university, at Tulane university school of medicine and at the Medical College of Virginia. She was graduated from the last institution with a medical degree. Dr. Aleman did post-graduate work in pediatrics at the Harvard university medical school. She served as an extern both at Hotel Dieu here and. at New York's Lying-in hospital.
PRIVATE PRACTICE For 16 years she was staff pediatrician at the old J. T. Nix Clinic. Since 1941, she had been engaged in private practice. She had been teaching pediatrics at the Hotel Dieu School of Nursing since 1930. Her affiliation with Hotel Dieu as nurse and doctor covered a period of 44 years.
Dr. Aleman at one time served as clinical instructor in pediatrics | at the Tulane University Post- \ Graduate school of medicine. She also served as instructor in pediatrics at the Louisiana State university medical school. Between 1930 and 1945, she was a visiting physician at Charity hospital.
She was a member of the staff of Mercy hospital for many years, and since 1930 had served on the staff of St. Vincent's Infant Asylum. She was named medical director of the asylum in 1939.
In 1953, Dr. Aleman was chosen president of the New Orleans Catholic Physicians Guild. She was once president of Alpha Ep-silon Iota, woman's medical fraternity. She was a member of Beta Theta, honor biology fraternity, and a member of the Business and Professional Women's Club.
Other posts included chairman of women physicians of the Southern Medical Association, secretary of the New Orleans branch of the American Medical Women's Association, and chairman of various committees for the New Orleans Graduate Medical Assembly. In 1945, Dr. Aleman was
commissioned a senior surgeon in The United States Public Health Service Reserve Corps. During the same year, she served as state medical consultant for the Louisiana Parent-Teacher Association. She was also a member of the local committee for the National Conference of Catholic Charities which met in New Orleans in 1947. She was a founding member of Lakeshore hospital. She! was a frequent contributor to ■ medical journals.
A member, of numerous medi-j cal societies, Dr. Aleman at one time served as president of the Louisiana State Pediatric Society. In 1948, she was a delegate to the Louisiana State Medical Society.
Survivors include three sisters, Mrs. J. M. Perret Sr., New Orleans; Mrs. David L. Robertson, Erwinville, and Mrs, A. E. Jumonville, Houma, and a brother, Dr. Slattery C. Aleman, New Orleans.
photo:Ruth Aleman
