Alice Madden started as a nurse’s aide at Methodist Dallas Medical Center on July 11, 1971.

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She retired Friday, exactly 48 years later, as the lead surgical tech for cardiac surgery.

Madden is beloved by employees and patients alike.

The 69-year-old was often the first person a patient would see then they were wheeled into an operating room here.  She’s known to pray and even sing with patients to help relax them in what can be a frightening setting.  It’s not uncommon for a patient to wake up after surgery and ask ‘Where’s Alice?’

“Alice is one of the most positive, optimistic forces of nature I have worked with in my entire career,” Methodist Health Systems president and CEO Stephen Mansfield says. “With a million-dollar smile, her impact on people here is the thing of legends. I feel so blessed to have had her as a key employee at Methodist.”

Madden was born in Louisiana and grew up picking cotton for $2 a day. Surgeons at Methodist helped pay her way through college.

She says learning to sleep late will be her first challenge in retirement.

“I automatically get up at 4 a.m.,” she says.   “I don’t even own an alarm clock.”