North Carolina Nurses Who Made Significant Contributions to the Nursing Profession
Each of the nurses below has made unique and significant contributions to the nursing profession in North Carolina.
| Name | Known for | Dates |
|---|---|---|
| Clara Adams-Ender |
Brigadier General in the U.S. Army |
1939- ; s.1961-1993 |
| Gale Adcock |
State Representative / NCNA Hall of Fame Inductee |
2008 |
| Frances Allen |
Polio Epidemic Nurse |
1916-1999 |
| Goldie Allen |
Appalachian Itinerant Red Cross Nurse |
1920s-1930s |
| Marilyn Augustin |
"Healer of the Hills" |
1980s |
| Mary Ione Branch Bain |
WWI Nurse from Halifax |
1897-1991 |
| Amy Louise Fisher Barrier |
Lutheran Watauga Parish Nurse |
1901-1990 |
| Mary Rose Batterham |
2nd RN in the US |
1870-1927 |
| Julia Choate Baxter |
Korean War Army Nurse |
1920- |
| Cherry Maynor Beasley |
Nursing Leader and Lumbee Indian |
1953- |
| Frela Dean Owl Beck |
Cherokee Nurse |
1940- |
| Audrey Booth |
NC Nursing Leader |
1924-2019 |
| Florence E. Boyd |
"Angel of Mercy" in the Mountains |
1950s |
| Josephine Burton Bradham |
First RN in North Carolina and the US |
1875-1917 |
| Kathleen Bragg |
Pioneer Outer Banks Nurse |
1897-1975 |
| Carrie Early Broadfoot |
Founder of NCACGN |
1870-1945 |
| Edith Broadway |
Superintendent of Morehead City's First Hospital, 1912 |
1877-1952 |
| Charlotte Brody |
Nurse and Environmental Activist |
1960s- |
| Idell K. Buchan |
Public Health Nurse in Moore County |
1887-1947 |
| Nancy Burrage |
Cabarrus County Pediatric Nurse |
1950s- |
| Dorothy Butler |
Mission Belle Pediatric Nurse |
1927-2013 |
| Virginia Yearick Card |
US Army Nurse |
1940s |
| Elizabeth Scott Carrington |
RN Instrumental in Founding Carolina's School of Nursing |
1902-1993 |
| Patty H. Carter |
Director of Nursing Lincoln Hospital |
1911-1948 |
| Mildred I. Clark |
US Army Colonel; 12th Chief of the US Army Nurse Corps 1963-1967 |
1915-1994 |
| Betty Baines Compton |
Pioneer Nurse Practitioner |
1940- |
| Margaret Lucille Covington |
U.S. Navy Flight Nurse |
1919-2019 |
| Frances Reed Elliott Davis |
First African American Red Cross Nurse; WWI Nurse |
1883-1965 |
| Christabelle Dilworth |
St. Agnes Graduate |
1920-2013 |
| Dorothea Dix |
Mental Health Advocate |
1840s |
| Virginia Rosebud Sneed Dixon |
Eastern Band Cherokee / WWII and Korean War Veteran |
1919-2021 |
| Margaret Dolan |
National Nursing Leader; 1st ANA President from NC |
1914-1974 |
| Bessie Catherine Draper |
Dare County Public Health Nurse |
1904-1976 |
| Louise P. East |
President NCSNA 1948-49 and First Nurse President of NCPHA 1952-53 |
1940s-1950s |
| Laura Easton |
CEO of Caldwell Memorial Hospital |
1980s- |
| Rose Ehrenfeld |
State Director of Public Health Nursing |
1877-1961 |
| Thereasea Delerine Clark Elder |
Early African American Public Health Nurse in Charlotte |
1927-2021 |
| Sharon Elliott-Bynum |
Community Organizer / Health Care Provider |
1996- |
| Rene Ellmers |
1st NC Nurse Elected to US Congress |
2011-2017 |
| Frances Farthing |
Watauga County Nurse |
1911- |
| Anne Ferguson |
Spanish American War Nurse |
1872-1941 |
| Rosalie A. Ferguson |
WWI Base Hospital No. 65 Nurse |
1896-1975 |
| Vernice Doris Ferguson |
Nursing Executive and Mentor |
1928-2012 |
| Delaine Tabor Fleming |
African American Pioneer Nurse and Mentor |
1925-2015 |
| Janet Garvey |
Operation Desert Storm Nurse |
1962- |
| Lula Owl Gloyne |
1st Eastern Band Cherokee Nurse |
1891-1985 |
| Lisa Goldstein |
Mountain Midwife |
1950s- |
| Calla Virginia Goodwin |
Lt. JG, Korean War Nurse |
1922- |
| Annie Ruth Graham |
Vietnam War Nurse |
1916-1968 |
| Ernest J. Grant |
President of NCNA and ANA |
2018-2020 |
| Evelyn Barbara Whitlow Greenfield |
WWII POW Nurse in the Philippines |
1916-1994 |
| Ruth Crew Grimes |
Winston-Salem Red Cross Nurse and Spanish Flu Nurse |
1892-1921 |
| Madelon “Glory” Battle Hancock |
Most Decorated Nurse in WWI |
1881-1930 |
| Donna Allen Harris |
First African-American Graduate of Duke University School of Nursing |
1949- |
| Margaret Harry |
Red Cross Nursing and Nursing Mentor |
1920s |
| Ruth W. Hay |
Public Health Nurse and First Female Professor at UNC Chapel Hill |
1930s |
| Annie Lathan Odom Hayes |
Community Health Nurse and Educator |
1927-2009 |
| Edna Heinzerling |
Author and Nursing Administrator |
1888-1977 |
| Helen J. Henley |
WWII Nurse from Greensboro |
1920-1948 |
| Mattie Donnell Hicks |
WWII Nurse and Korean War Veteran |
1940s-1960s |
| Ruby A.F. Woodbury Scarlett Hilton |
Early African American Nursing Leader |
1920s |
| Lydia Holman |
Community Health Pioneer |
1900-1960 |
| Patricia D. Horoho |
Chief of US Army Nurse Corps and 43rd Surgeon General |
1960- |
| Abby House |
Angel of Mercy to Confederate Soldiers |
1797-1881 |
| Betty Hunt |
LPN Nursing Leader |
1947 |
| Mary May Iles |
Ashe County Nurse |
1925-2017 |
| Thelma Ingles |
Started "Clinical Nurse Practitioner" Program at Duke |
1903-1983 |
| Della Hayden Raney Jackson |
African American Trailblazer and WWII Nurse |
1912-1987 |
| Harriet Jacobs |
Civil War African American Nurse |
1813-1897 |
| J. Ida Roberts Jiggetts |
Mental Health Social Worker and Scholar of Judaism |
1901-1992 |
| Polly Johnson |
NCNA Hall of Fame Recipient |
2008 |
| Jamarica Smith Jones |
Child Health Nurse, "Asthma Champion," and Poet |
1950- |
| Nancy Kautz |
Community Outreach Nurse, Ashe County |
1944- |
| Johnea D. Kelly |
Outstanding Nursing Educator and UNC Faculty Member |
1928-2021 |
| Elizabeth Kemble |
First Dean of UNC-Chapel Hill School of Nursing |
1950s |
| Margaret Belva Mizelle King |
WWII and Korean War Nurse |
1918-2004 |
| Mary King Kneedler |
Public Health Nurse |
1913-2010 |
| Carmen Lacey |
Avery County Nurse |
1957- |
| Amelia Lawrason Wilson |
North Carolina's First Public Health Nurse |
1874-1946 |
| Annie Lee Lawrence |
Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Air Force and Nursing Educator |
1929-2020 |
| Sue Lynn Ledford |
Public Health Administrator from Cherokee County |
2000s |
| Eloise Patricia Lewis |
First Dean of UNC-Greensboro |
1920-1999 |
| Helen Howard McFayden |
Presbyterian Missionary Nurse |
1886-1969 |
| Helen Sullivan Miller |
Dean of NCCU |
1950s- |
| Mary Mills |
Pioneer in Global and Transcultural Nursing |
1912-2010 |
| Martha Pegram Mitchell |
WWII Nurse |
1917-2019 |
| Marie Brock Noell, RN |
Visionary Leader and Executive Director of the NCNA |
1941-1967 |
| Anne O’Connell |
Proprietor of Princess Anne Hotel, Asheville, NC |
1920s |
| Katie Mae Grace Paul |
Pioneer Teacher of Licensed Pratical Nurses |
1909- |
| Clara Jane Peck |
First Public Health Nurse in Greensboro, NC |
1862-1926 |
| Anne Penland |
WWI Nurse Anesthetist |
1885-1976 |
| Frances Pratt |
Pioneering North Carolina family planning nurse |
1937-1975 |
| Virginia Russell Reavis |
WWII Air Evacuation Nurse |
1920- |
| Edith Redwine |
First "Inspectress" of Nursing Schools in North Carolina |
1877-1939 |
| Joy Reed |
Public Health Nursing Administrator |
1970s- |
| Hettie Mable Reinhardt |
WWI Nurse |
1879-1953 |
| Charlotte Rhone |
Social Worker and First African-American Nurse in NC |
1874-1963 |
| Daisy Conner Robinson |
African American Pioneer Nurse |
1892-1947 |
| Delia Smith Rominger |
Avery County Nurse |
1918-2014 |
| Blanche Catherine Hayes Sansom |
Early African American School Nurse |
1910s-1950s |
| Judy Seamon |
First Chair of the North Carolina Center for Nursing |
1980s |
| Lucy Ashby Sharp |
Spanish-American War Nurse |
1862-1912 |
| Lovie Beard Shelton |
First Public Health Nurse in Pamlico County |
1925-2013 |
| Mary Singletary |
St. Agnes Graduate |
1928-2017 |
| Ernestine Brown Small |
First African American Teaching Faculty Member at UNC Greensboro and First African American President of NCNA |
1960s- |
| Virginia Stone |
Pioneer in Gerontological Nursing |
1960s-1990s |
| Ora L. Strickland |
National Nursing Leader, Scientist, Educator and Author |
1960s- |
| Terry Taylor |
Courageous HIV/AIDS Activist |
1941- |
| Mary Elizabeth McMillan Thompson |
Cumberland County Nurse |
1902-1982 |
| Julia Latta Tinnin |
African American Nurse Trailblazer |
c.1867-1939 |
| Eugene Tranbarger |
President of NCNA and Chair of the NC Board of Nursing |
1970s- |
| Nancy Vance |
Pioneer Public Health Nurse |
1886-1942 |
| Mary Phinney von Olnhausen |
Civil War Nurse and Abolitionist |
1818-1902 |
| Ernestine Walkingstick |
Cherokee Public Health Nurse |
1937-1999 |
| Lula Warlick |
Director of Mercy Hospital SON in Philadelphia for 23 Years |
1884-c.1950 |
| May Greenfield Watson |
WWI Nurse |
1886-1958 |
| Pearl Weaver |
Pioneer Public Health Nurse |
1879-1969 |
| Jane Renwick Smedburg Wilkes |
Civil War Nurse; Hospital Founder |
1827-1913 |
| Lucile Zimmerman Williams |
Nursing Administrator and Educator |
1907-1971 |
| Ruby L. Wilson |
Dean of Duke School of Nursing |
1971-1984 |
| Mary Lewis Wyche |
"Florence Nightingale" of North Carolina |
1858-1936 |