Margaret Bailey

Margaret E. Bailey (December 25, 1915 – August 28, 2014) was a United States Army Nurse Corps colonel. She served in the Corps for 27 years, from July 1944 to July 1971, nine of which she served in France, Germany, and Japan. During her career, Bailey advanced from a second lieutenant to colonel, the highest achievable military rank in the Nurse Corps. She set several landmarks for black nurses in US military, becoming the first black lieutenant colonel in 1964, the first black chief nurse in a mixed, non-segregated unit in 1966, and the first black full colonel in 1967. During World War II, Bailey treated German prisoners of war. In the later years of her military career, she actively worked with minority organizations and advocated to increase black participation in the Corps. After her retirement from the Army, she served as a consultant to the Surgeon General in the Nixon administration, working to increase the number of minorities in the Nurse Corps. For many years, she made speeches supporting equal participation in United States Army across the United States. Early life Bailey grew up in one of the most segregated areas of the South. She was born in Selma, Alabama, on December 25, 1915. Her father, Adam Bailey, died when she was eight years old, and her mother, Hattie Bailey, moved the family to Mobile, Alabama. There, Bailey graduated from W.H. Council Elementary School, then from Emerson Junior High School, and in 1933, from Dunbar High School. As a child, Bailey walked past a local hospital on her way to school, and tidy look of medical personnel prompted her ambition to become a nurse. During the Great Depression, Bailey worked on school nights and Saturdays to help her family. After graduating from Dunbar High School, she worked for two years to save enough money to further her education. In 1935, she was accepted to the Fraternal Hospital School of Nursing in Montgomery, Alabama. Civilian nursing career (1938 – 1944)