Bessie Blount Griffin

Bessie Virginia Griffin, better known as Bessie Blount

Early life Bessie Blount Griffin was born on November 24, 1914 in the Hickory, Virginia community of Princess Anne County (now known as the city of Chesapeake). Even though her right hand was her dominant writing hand, she maintained the ability to write with her left hand as well. She also taught herself to write without the use of her hands by holding a pencil with her teeth and feet.

Physical therapist career During her career as a physical therapist, after World War II, many soldiers returned as amputees after being wounded in combat. As a part of Blount's physical therapy exercises, she taught veterans who had lost the ability to use their hands, new ways to perform everyday tasks by substituting the use of their teeth and feet. She would tell them, “You’re not crippled, only crippled in your mind”.

Inventions - assistive devices While working at the Bronx Hospital in New York, at thirty-seven years old, Blount invented an electric self-feeding apparatus for amputees. She used plastic, boiling water to mold the material, a file, ice pick, hammer, and some dishes to create a prototype of her invention.

The American Veterans Administration (VA) declined Blount's invention, so in 1952 she licensed it freely to the French government. She remarked in an interview with the African-American that her accomplishment showed that "a black woman can invent something for the benefit of humankind". Though more modern, slimmer devices have been invented since 1948, Blount is remembered for pioneering the first electric device for feeding amputees. The basin was a kidney-shaped disposable cardboard dish made out of flour, water, and newspaper that was baked until the material was hard. Once again, the U.S. Veterans Affairs (VA) showed no interest in Blount's invention. She sold the rights to her invention to a company in Belgium.

Forensic science career In 1969, Blount embarked on a second career, in law enforcement, pursuing forensic science research for police departments in New Jersey and Virginia.

On returning, Blount started her own forensic science consulting business and ran it for twenty-years, using her forensic experience to examine documents and slave papers from the pre-civil war. Blount operated that business until the age of 83. covering everything from Fidel Castro’s visit to Harlem to Lyndon Johnson’s presidential nomination. She joined the NAACP to do public relations work and wrote several medical papers that were published in respected journals covering “medical graphology” and the relationship between a person’s health and their handwriting.

In 2019, The New York Times published a belated obituary for her, as part of Overlooked No More.

Death Blount died at age 95 on December 30, 2009 at her home in Newfield, New Jersey.