Vivien Thomas and His Best Friend, Charles Manlove

Vivien Thomas was nineteen years when his best friend, Mr. Charles Manlove, who already worked at Vanderbilt, suggested that Mr. Thomas should try working for Dr. Alfred Blalock in the surgery lab. Even after the Thomases left for Baltimore, the men remained close all their lives. In fact, Mr. Manlove’s daughter, Gwendolyn Manlove Clarke, lived with the Thomases in Baltimore when she was a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University. Whenever Thomas could get to Nashville or Manlove to Baltimore, the two would enjoy countless conversations together. This 1981 photograph is of Mr. Charles Manlove, on left, with Mr. Thomas.