By Tracy Gupton
January 2, 2024, has been set as the target date for the reopening of the Kittie Nash Groce Memorial Rehabilitation Center in West Columbia. But much work must be done in a relatively short period of time if that goal is to be achieved.
Trustees of the physical therapist facility that originally opened in March of 1984 at 301 Dance Drive are in the process of seeking bids for the remodeling project. And although aerobics classes for senior citizens have continued at the facility, it was a little over two months ago that the local rehab center was last used for its intended purpose, according to the Kittie Nash Groce Hospital Trust’s newest trustee Steve Weems.
Weems, whose parents Jack and Phyllis Weems used to live across Dance Drive from the rehab center, replaced longtime trustee John Damon earlier this year, joining Dr. Roy Ledbetter and John Phillips as trustees of the foundation that has helped finance numerous public service entities over the years.
“This facility was built in 1983 and 1984,” Weems said. “Kittie wanted the money she left to be used for a hospital in West Columbia.”
Photo by Tracy Gupton
Kittie Nash Groce Hospital Trust Board Member Steve Weems discusses the many changes planned for the Dance Drive rehab facility in West Columbia earlier this month. TOTAL Physical Therapy & Rehab will occupy the building once “floor to ceiling” remodeling is completed. The new WC physical therapy business hopes to open its doors January 2nd.
This writer covered the ribbon cutting and dedication of the Kittie Nash Groce Memorial Rehabilitation Center as editor of The Brazoria County News on March 3, 1984, when retired Columbia-Brazoria school district superintendent Kenneth Welsch, former West Columbia banker M.M. “Dooley” Galloway and local rancher J.G. “Jack” Phillips Jr. were the trustees of the foundation.
The ribbon cutting ceremony at the original dedication of the rehabilitation center 39 years ago featured Baldwin Nash Young, a cousin of Kittie Nash Groce, addressing the more than 50 invited guests to the official grand opening of the rehab facility in 1984. Baldwin Young, who died in 1988, was an architect who was involved in the management of the Nash Ranch near East Columbia before his passing.
Photo by Tracy Gupton
This photo from the original dedication ceremony at the Kittie Nash Groce Memorial Rehabilitation Center in West Columbia was taken in March 1984 by this writer when Tracy Gupton was editor of The Brazoria County News. Baldwin Young, a cousin of “Miss Kittie” Nash Groce, spoke at the rehabilitation center ribbon cutting while Jack Phillips, an original trustee of the Kittie Nash Groce Hospital Trust, looked on in the background.
Katherine “Kittie” Nash Groce inherited her family’s 15,000-acre Nash Ranch on County Road 25 following the deaths of her father William Rufus Nash in 1930 and her mother Ina Young Nash in 1933. “Miss Kittie” was as well known for her benevolence as she was for her successful cattle ranch that covered vast acreage. She was once described by a reporter from Houston as “the biggest rancher in Brazoria County who wears pants, lipstick and rouge.”
The popular philanthropist died at the age of 71 on December 3, 1957, in Houston. Mrs. Groce, whose husband Browning Groce died in 1911 at the young age of 31, had no children and left her large ranch to relatives. She set up a trust fund with the primary goal of continuing her altruistic endeavors in the local community beyond her death.
Weems’ fellow trustee John Gayle Phillips III, son of former trustee Jack Phillips, said the proposed improvements will be the first major remodel of the Dance Drive rehab center since the building opened in 1984.
“A lot of little things need to be done,” Phillips said. “We are going to give the old girl a facelift.”
The creation of the Kittie Nash Groce Memorial Rehabilitation Center in West Columbia that provided physical intervention and treatment to help patients recover mobility that had been diminished due to strokes or other health problems was a prime example of the trustees of Groce’s foundation seeking to achieve Miss Kittie’s goal.
The remodeling of the existing facility is expected to begin soon. Weems said TOTAL Physical Therapy & Rehab at Kittie Nash plans to lease the building once the remodeling project is complete. If everything goes as planned, a new rehabilitation venue will be open for business in West Columbia at the first of the new year, Phillips said.
“TOTAL Physical Therapy & Rehab is looking forward to serving West Columbia and the surrounding communities by offering one on one treatment sessions by highly experienced physical therapists with a commitment to excellence and healing,” said Lisa Brunner, owner of TOTAL Physical Therapy & Rehab. “The therapists will evaluate, develop and implement a customized treatment plan designed to meet the specific needs of each individual patient.”
Lisa Brunner worked the past 20 years with Grace Hankins at the Sweeny hospital and the duo will be leading a team of physical therapists at the new TOTAL Physical Therapy & Rehab at Kittie Nash once the proposed remodeling project reaches completion. Brunner and Hankins said the Kittie Nash Groce Hospital Trust’s project that will probably take the remaining four months of this year will see changes made to the interior “from floor to ceiling” at the West Columbia rehab facility.
Lisa Brunner of TOTAL Physical Therapy & Rehab
Hankins earned a bachelors degree in physical therapy from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Dallas in 1984. She served as a physical therapist in Richmond for 17 years and has spent the past 20 years working in West Columbia at the Kittie Nash Groce Memorial Rehabilitation Center when the facility was managed by Sweeny Community Hospital.
Brunner, a 1991 graduate of Texas A&M University, worked at Sweeny Community Hospital for 26 years as director of physical therapy. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Community Health Education and later secured a masters degree in 1995 in physical therapy from UTMB-Galveston. She said TOTAL Physical Therapy & Rehab at Kittie Nash will offer outpatient physical therapy, post-surgical treatment and pelvic floor therapy, while caring for stroke victims and treating lymphedema (swelling in arms and legs).
Grace Hankins, Physical Therapist at TOTAL Physical Therapy & Rehab
Many changes to the interior of the rehab building are on the drawing board, according to Weems, who said a projected cost of the project cannot be announced until the trustees have an opportunity to review the construction bids.
For more information about TOTAL Physical Therapy & Rehab at Kittie Nash or to schedule a future appointment with Lisa Brunner, PT, and Grace Hankins, PT, call (979) 345-7878 (PTPT).