Loney Clinton was born in Arkansas, USA, on October 8, 1915 [1–6]. She moved to Michigan with her family as a young girl and studied home economics and chemistry at Michigan State University (then Michigan State College), East Lansing, USA. She completed her bachelor’s degree there in 1939.

Clinton originally wanted to work as a dietitian, but faced discrimination in the field as an African-American woman. She was told white male chefs would not want to take orders from a black female dietitian [6]. She moved to Grand Rapids, MI, USA, where she was hired by Pearl Kendrick and Grace Eldering in 1944. Eldering and Kendrick, who worked at the Michigan Department of Health’s Grand Rapids laboratory, had started to develop a vaccine for pertussis (whooping cough) in 1932 [7,8].

There were pertussis vaccines available at the time, but they were not effective, and the disease caused high death tolls in Michigan. Public health research in state laboratories was one area where women were sought for research positions, because men with the necessary training tended to seek higher-paying positions at universities or research institutions [2].

 

1 Whooping Cough

Whooping cough, or pertussis is a respiratory illness caused by a type of bacteria called Bordetella pertussis (see Fig. 1). It is also known as the “100-day cough” because it can cause violent coughing that lasts for many weeks. The disease is highly contagious and can be fatal.

Today, immunization against pertussis is routinely used and recommended, e.g., by the World Health Organization (WHO). Usually, combination vaccines against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis are used, with basic immunization starting in infants to protect them through early childhood [9].

 

Figure 1. Gram stain of Bordetella pertussis bacteria (public domain).

 

2 An Effective Vaccine

Clinton’s work at the Michigan Department of Health’s laboratory focused on culturing a strain of Bordetella pertussis that was sufficiently virulent to make an efficient vaccine against whooping cough. This was a key component in the development of life-saving immunizations.

Clinton and other lab technicians cultured bacteria from thousands of “cough plates” received from doctors and public health nurses. She identified a medium containing sheep’s blood as the key to incubating the bacteria quickly and effectively in the laboratory. After many, many bacterial cultures, she found the strain she was looking for and that led to a more effective vaccine.

After her discovery, Clinton continued to work at the Michigan Department of Health, first in the Grand Rapids laboratory. She married Howard Gordon on June 23, 1956, and moved to the Lansing laboratory of the Michigan Department of Health that year. She continued working in microbiology and public health until her retirement in 1978 [2].

Loney Clinton Gordon died on July 16, 1999, in East Lansing, MI, USA. She was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame for her contributions to medicine in 2000. In 2019, the Grand Rapids Community Legends Project unveiled a statue of Pearl Kendrick, Grace Eldering, and Loney Clinton Gordon at the Michigan State University Research Center in Grand Rapids.

 

Loney Clinton Gordon is the answer to Guess the Chemist (152).

 

3 References

[1] Hannah Krebs, Loney Clinton Gordon, Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council, 2023. www.ggrwhc.org (accessed July 1, 2024)

[2] Richard Conniff, The Unsung Heroes Who Ended a Deadly Plague, Smithsonian Magazine, March 2022. www.smithsonianmag.com (accessed July 1, 2024)

[3] Whitney Burney, Grand Rapids woman helped make stronger whooping cough vaccine, WoodTV, February 15, 2021. www.woodtv.com (accessed July 1, 2024)

[4] Dustin Dwyer, Remembering Loney Clinton Gordon: “You achieved something and you were glad for that.”, Michigan Public, February 12, 2021. www.michiganpublic.org (accessed July 1, 2024)

[5] René F. Najera, Historical Figure of the Month: Loney Clinton Gordon, History of Vaccines, The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, January 19, 2021. historyofvaccines.org (accessed July 1, 2024)

[6] Michigan Women Forward, Loney Clinton Gordon (1915 – 1999). miwf.org (accessed July 1, 2024)

[7] Carolyn G. Shapiro-Shapin, Pearl Kendrick, Grace Eldering, and the Pertussis Vaccine,
Emerg. Infect. Dis. 2010, 16, 1273–1278. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid1608.100288

[8] Eryn Killian, The Trailblazer, Snapshots of U-M History, University of Michigan. bentley.umich.edu (accessed July 1, 2024)

[9] U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Whooping Cough (Pertussis) Vaccination. cdc.gov (accessed July 1, 2024)