Military
Della H. Raney
1912–1987 · military nurse
Pioneering Army nurse, the first African American nurse to report for duty in World War II and the first appointed chief nurse, who died in Detroit in 1987.
- Born
Suffolk, Virginia- Died
Detroit, Michigan
aged 75- Birth name
- Della Hayden Raney
- Also known as
- Della Raney Jackson · Maw Raney
- Detroit years
- 1987
- Field
- Military
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Raney was born in Suffolk, Virginia, in 1912 and trained at the Lincoln Hospital School of Nursing in Durham, North Carolina, graduating in 1937. In April 1941 she reported for duty in the Army Nurse Corps, the first African American nurse to do so in World War II, and she was soon named chief nurse, again a first. Serving with the station hospital at Tuskegee Army Air Field, home of the Tuskegee Airmen, she became in 1944 the first Black nurse in the Army Air Corps promoted to captain, and she reached the rank of major in 1946. After postwar service that included occupation duty in Japan, she retired from the Army in 1978. She died in Detroit in 1987 and was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.
Highlights
- First African American nurse to report for duty in World War II (April 1941)
- First Black chief nurse in the Army Nurse Corps
- Served at Tuskegee Army Air Field, home of the Tuskegee Airmen
- Promoted to captain (1944) and major (1946); retired in 1978
- Died in Detroit, 1987; buried at Arlington National Cemetery