Anita Perry

Texas First Lady Anita Thigpen Perry spent 17 years working as a nurse. In 2008, Texas Tech University renamed its nursing school the Anita Thigpen Perry School of Nursing.
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Alberta Hunter, one of the most influential jazz and blues singers of the 20th century, worked as a licensed practical nurse for over 20 years.

Alberta Hunter in her nurses uniform at Goldwater Memorial Hospital before her retirement in 1977

Margie Oppenheimer as a nurse after WWII (AP Photo/Courtesy Margie Oppenheimer)

Holocaust survivor and nurse Margie Oppenheimer was born on May 9, 1924, in Oelde, Germany.   On November 9, 1938, she and her family were attacked in a pogrom known as “Kristallnacht” (Night of the Broken Glass) and in December 1941 deported to the Jewish ghetto in Riga, Latvia. Over the next several years, Oppenheimer would spend time in 5 concentration camps: Sloka (Latvia), Riga-Kaiserwald (Lativia), Bruss-Sophienwalde (Poland), Stutthof (Danzig) and Goddentow (Germany).
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Nellie Ann Beatty Wade, who turned 90 years old last month, is the oldest practicing nurse in Florida. Continue reading →

Widely recognized as the founder of the Frontier Nursing Service, Mary Breckinridge was born on February 17, 1881 in Memphis, Tennessee.
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Linda Richards (1841-1930)

Widely recognized as America’s first professionally trained nurse, Linda Richards was born on July 27, 1841 in West Potsdam, New York.   Caring for her dying mother, and then her fiancé, who was gravely wounded during the Civil War, sparked an interest in nursing, even though she had studied teaching for a year.
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Florence Nightingale (1820-1910)

Widely recognized as a pioneer in the field of nursing and in adding much-needed respectability to the profession, Florence Nightingale was born on May 12, 1820 in Florence, which at the time was a part of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.
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Florence Guinness Blake (1907-1983)

Widely recognized as a pioneer in the field of pediatric nursing and in the development of advanced nursing education programs, Florence Guinness Blake was born on November  30, 1907 in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. Continue reading →

Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt, taken on V-J Day, 1945 (from Life Magazine).

Edith Shain was born in Tarrytown, New York on July 29, 1918. She later attended the New York University nursing program and worked as a psychiatric nurse at Doctor’s Hospital in New York City. Upon learning that World War II had ended, on August 14, 1945, she went to Times Square with a friend to celebrate. Continue reading →

Walt Whitman (photograph by Matthew Brady)

Although better known as an influential American poet, essayist and journalist, Walt Whitman also worked as a nurse during the Civil War. Continue reading →