Mary Lee Mills

Mary Lee Mills (August 1912 – February 2, 2010) was an American nurse. Born into a family of eleven children, she attended the Lincoln Hospital School of Nursing and graduated in a nursing degree and became a registered nurse. After working as a midwife, she joined the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) in 1946 and served as their chief nursing officer of Liberia, working to hold some of their first campaigns in public health education. Mills later worked in Lebanon and established the country's first nursing school, and helped to combat treatable diseases. She was later assigned to South Vietnam, Cambodia and Chad to provide medical education.

Mills retired from the USPHS in 1966 and was employed by the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and was made their nursing consultant in the migrant health program. She retired full-time in 1976 but remained active in her local community. She is the recipient of several awards including the National Order of the Cedar, and was inducted into the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame in 2012.

Biography

Early life Mills was born in Wallace, North Carolina, in August 1912. She was part of family of eleven children and was the granddaughter of slaves. Mills was raised in nearby Watha. Poor weather conditions in the early 1910s forced many African-American families to migrate to the Northern United States, although Mills' family remained in North Carolina and her father worked as a farm laborer. She planned to study law but later decided to focus on nursing after reading a letter that suggested it would provide an income that would allow her to do what she desired. Mills later adopted a second child. She was profiled by author Mary Elizabeth Carnegie in her 1995 book The Path We Tread: Blacks in Nursing Worldwide. Mills died on February 2, 2010, at Pender Memorial Hospital in Burgaw at the age of 98. She was made a Knight Official of the Liberian Humane Order of the Redemption by the government of Liberia, and was a recipient of the National Order of the Cedar by Lebanon. Mills was awarded the Public Health Service's Distinguished Service Award, Her portrait is on display at the Smithsonian Institution. Mills was inducted into the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame in 2012.