Lenah Higbee

Lenah Higbee (1874 to 1941), born Lenah Sutcliffe in Chatham, New Brunswick, was a Canadian-born nurse who became a leader of the United States Navy Nurse Corps. She finished nurses' training at the New York Post-Graduate Hospital in 1899 and entered private practice. In October 1908 she joined the newly created Navy Nurse Corps as one of its first twenty members, known as the Sacred Twenty, and was promoted to Chief Nurse in 1909, serving at Norfolk Naval Hospital. In January 1911 she became the second Superintendent of the Corps and led it through the First World War. For that service she became the first woman awarded the Navy Cross. She retired in November 1922, died in Winter Park, Florida, and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Two United States Navy ships have been named in her honor.