Florence Stonebraker

Florence English Stonebraker
George Washington University 
yearbook, 1925

The irony about the life of author Florence Stonebraker (1895–1977) is that even though she was an extraordinarily prolific writer, very little is known about her life. She was born Aug. 28, 1895, in Washington, D.C.; the Stonebraker family had been living in the D.C./Maryland area since the 1700s. She was the youngest of three surviving children, born 14 years after her oldest brother and ten years after her youngest brother. (All had the middle name English, which was their mother’s maiden name.) The family lived at 645 Massachusetts Avenue NE, in a swanky townhouse about seven blocks from the U.S. Capitol grounds. Florence’s father died at the age of 57 after a long illness in 1909 when she was 14. She studied music at the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins and was noticed as a talented pianist who regularly played in recitals given in Washington from 1913 to 1916. One review stated that she “possesses poise, musical feeling, good technique and an admirable appreciation of tone values … that promises much for her future career,” but after 1916 she only gave two other recitals that were mentioned in the press.

In 1919 she and her mother moved to a more modest row house in Washington. In 1920, when she was 25, she was working as a clerk in the Treasury Department. She also apparently studied journalism and wrote for magazines during this period. Her mother died in 1924 when she was 28, and the following year she received a law degree from George Washington University. The year after that she was admitted to practice law at the Supreme Court, one of three women out of 56 admitted that day.

She remained in Washington, D.C., until 1929, but then made the surprising move of relocating to San Francisco, where she had no family and lived alone in an apartment on Leavenworth Avenue, and began working primarily as a writer. She resided there for four years until 1933, when she was 38. At this point she disappears from the records and does not turn up again until 1940, when she was living in San Diego with William Morrison Stuart, who had taken her last name; he continued to call himself William Stonebraker until his death, and even his death certificate erroneously gives his last name (and his father’s) as Stonebraker. 

William had moved to San Francisco with his wife Eleanor, whom he had married in 1925 in Manhattan, in 1927. He also seems to have left San Francisco in 1933, although Eleanor stayed on, and in 1940 she was listed as divorced, though no divorce records have been found, nor has any marriage record for Florence and William (though lack of records at this time in history is not unusual). Who’s Who on the Pacific Coast, however, states that Florence married in 1934 when she was 39 and William was 50. William is somewhat mysterious himself; his marriage license to Eleanor states that he was born in Dundee, Scotland, but later records (including census records and draft cards from when he was living with Florence, and records of sea voyages with Eleanor) state he was born in Tama County, Iowa. Sources agree that his parents, anyway, were from Scotland. Before he lived with Florence he worked as a publicity agent and advertiser, but after marrying Florence he worked as a writer, so it is possible that they became a writing partnership publishing under her name/pen names.

Her first books came out in 1937 under the pen names Florenz Branch and Thomas Stone. Her career began with smuttier novels including Pay for Your Pleasure, Untamed Love, and She Had What They Wanted. Occasionally she published more respectable novels with medical characters, including Doctor by Day, City Doctor, and The New Nurse, all published in the 1940s; for her more traditional romance novels she used the pen name Florence Stuart, and then started writing under the name Fern Shepard in 1948. She also wrote three novels under the name Florence Sweet. She eventually wrote under her own name, and interestingly these were sexier books, including three lesbian novels. She stopped writing racy books in the late 1950s, and after that point wrote romance novels almost exclusively. Her last novels were published in 1969, when she was 74. Though an accurate count of her titles is difficult to tally given the number of books that were reprinted under different titles, she easily wrote more than 100, possibly more than 150. Curiously, internet sources frequently overstate the number of lesbian novels she wrote, and also understate the number of straightforward romance novels; she likely wrote about 60 romance novels, including about 20 nurse novels.

William Stuart died in 1966 at age 81 of a heart attack. In 1972 when she was 77, Florence was living in a building owned by United Community Church on S. Kenwood Street in Glendale, CA. She died Aug. 20, 1977, in Los Angeles. She left the bulk of her estate to the church, which at the time was led by William Steuart McBirnie. He was a charismatic radio megapreacher whose organization was worth millions at one point, but he ultimately became “entangled in lawsuits, is millions of dollars in debt and … used the ministry’s funds for unsuccessful private investments and to pay an ex-wife’s alimony while defaulting on loans owed to parishioners, churches and businesses,” according to the LA Times. Her bequeath to the church seems a little surprising because there are no indications in the record or in her writing that Florence was a particularly religious person.

Florence’s great-niece recalls that her father, Florence’s nephew, “thought she was quite a character! When you think about her career choice and lifestyle, that’s what my dad would say when he talked about her: ‘Aunt Florence was ahead of her time.’ She was not shy about expressing her opinions, and her letters were lively.” Certainly her books were lively, to say the least, and if she herself is something of an enigma, we have plenty of her writing to make us feel like we knew her regardless.

PEN NAMES
Florenz Branch
Fern Shepard
Thomas Stone
Florence Stuart
Florence Sweet

NURSE NOVELS
Baby Doctor by Thomas Stone, ©1943
    Also published as Dr. Randolph's Women
Camp Doctor by Thomas Stone, ©1943
Celebrity Nurse by Florence Stuart, ©1968
      Also published as Believe in Miracles by Florence Stuart
          and Television Nurse by Florence Stuart
City Doctor by Thomas Stone, ©1943
College Nurse by Fern Shepard, ©1965
Courtroom Nurse by Fern Shepard, ©1968
Dr. Brad’s Problem Nurse by Fern Shepard, ©1963
Doctor by Day by Thomas Stone, ©1944
      Probably the same book as Doctor Tony by Thomas Stone
Dr. Wade's Romantic Problem by Florence Stuart, ©1963
Graveyard Nurse by Fern Shepard, ©1967
Highway Nurse by Florence Stuart, ©1965
Hope Wears White by Florence Stuart, ©1961
Kentucky Nurse by Fern Shepard, ©1963
      Also published as Nurse Kitty’s Secret by Fern Shepard
The New Nurse* by Florence Stuart, ©1947
Night Nurse by Fern Shepard, ©1962
Nurse in Danger by Fern Shephard, ©1963
    Also published as Sacrifice for Love by Fern Shepard
The Nurse and the Crystal Ball by Florence Stuart, ©1969
The Nurse and the Orderly by Florence Stuart, ©1964
The Nurse from Alaska by Florence Stuart, ©1964
     Also published as Strange Triangle by Florence Stuart
A Nurse Named Courage by Florence Stuart, ©1965
Nurse under Fire by Florence Stuart, ©1964
Ozark Nurse by Fern Shepard, ©1965
     Also published as A Nurse’s Longing by Fern Shepard
Psychiatric Nurse by Fern Shepard, ©1967
Research Nurse by Florence Stuart, ©1968
     Also published as A Nurse’s Nightmare by Florence Stuart
Runaway Nurse by Florence Stuart, ©1964
     Also published as Her Doctor’s Past by Florence Stuart
Stop-Over Nurse by Fern Shephard, ©1968
    Also published as Forgotten Nurse by Fern Shepard
The Young Doctor* by Fern Shepard, ©1958
    Also published as Doctor Don’s Dilemma by Fern Shepard

*Note: This is not a true nurse romance novel

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