Estelle Massey Osborne

Estelle Massey was born in Palestine, Texas in 1901, the eighth of eleven children. Despite being uneducated and working in menial jobs, her parents, Hall and Bettye Estelle Massey, sent all of their children to college. She joined the first nursing class of St. Louis City Hospital #2 (later Homer G. Phillips Hospital), and became a head nurse there after graduating in 1923. She attended summer sessions at Teachers College, Columbia University, and eventually attended as a full-time student with the aid of a scholarship from the Rosenwald Fund. She received a bachelor's degree in 1930, and a master's in nursing education in 1931, becoming the first African American to do so. She married Dr. Bedford N. Riddle in 1932. == Career ==

Estelle Massey Riddle became educational director at Freedmen's Hospital (now Howard University Hospital) in Washington, D.C. In 1934 she worked as a researcher for the Rosenwald Fund, then returned to Homer G. Phillips Hospital in St. Louis to become its first black director of nursing. working to change discriminatory policies. By the end of World War II, 20 new nursing schools had begun admitting black students, the Cadet Nurse Corps had inducted 2,000 black members, and bans on black nurses had been rescinded by both the Army and Navy. ==Organization memberships==

• Member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority • President of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN), 1934–1939 • American Nurses Association Board of Directors (ANA's first black elected official), 1948–1952 • ANA delegate to the International Council of Nurses, 1949 • National League for Nursing Assistant Director, 1959 • National Council of Negro Women Local Program Committee chair • Key Women of Greater New York • National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) • National Urban League ==Awards and recognition==

• Mary Mahoney Award, 1946 • American Nurses Association Hall of Fame, 1984 • Chi Eta Phi Omicron Chapter honorary life membership ==Personal life==

In 1932, Massey married Dr. Bedford N. Riddle. This marriage ended in divorce, and in 1947 she married Herman Osborne, public relations director of the United Mutual Life Insurance Company. She had no children. == References ==