Lenah Higbee

Lenah H. Sutcliffe Higbee ( born May 18, 1874 in Chatham, New Brunswick, Canada, † January 10, 1941 in Winter Park, Florida, United States) was from 1911 to 1922, the Superintendent of the United States Navy Nurse Corps.

Born as Lenah H. Sutcliffe woman made in 1899 at the New York Post Graduate Hospital trained as a nurse and joined shortly afterwards in a private medical practice. Lenah Higbee was formed in 1908 in the Fordham Hospital, New York City continued and appeared as one of the first women in the newly formed U.S. Navy Nurse Corps. These twenty women who were referred to in the Navy later as " The Sacred Twenty", were the first women to be formally from serving in the Navy of the United States.

In April 1909 Higbee was promoted and Chief Nurse at Norfolk Naval Hospital. Higbee, now a widow of Lieutenant Colonel John Henley Higbee was in 1911 transferred to the post of Superintendent of the Navy Nurse Corps. It was thus the successor to the first Superintendent Esther Hasson. In this position, she managed the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps during the First World War. As you will be awarded in 1918 in recognition for their services, the Navy Cross, she was the first living woman, who was bestowed this honor. On November 23, 1922, she took her leave of the military.

She was buried after her death at the Arlington National Cemetery. When in 1945 the named after her warship USS Higbee (DD -806 ) was put into service, it was the first named after members of the Navy Nurse Corps warship of the United States.