Alabama NewsCenter — After 6 decades, ‘fifth little girl’ in Birmingham, Alabama, church bombing and her hospital nurse finally reunite

By Barnett Wright
The Birmingham Times

When an initially blinded, and nearly lifeless, 12-year-old girl found in the rubble of a church bombing was wheeled onto the 10th floor of University Hospital in Birmingham almost 60 years ago, one of the first people to tend to the child was Rosetta “Rose” Hughes, a nurse on the floor.

It was Hughes who stayed with Sarah Collins, the “fifth little girl” in the bombing, until a doctor arrived on that momentous day, as an unforgettable chapter was being etched into the city’s history.

Hughes was on duty on Sept. 15, 1963, when a bomb demolished the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, killing Addie Mae Collins, 14; Denise McNair, 11; Carole Rosamond Robertson, 14; and Cynthia Wesley, 14; and injuring dozens of parishioners.

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