Before World War I, Leete was superintendent of nurses at the Babies' Dispensary and Hospital in
Cleveland, Ohio, and a nationally recognized expert on infant care. Leete was a charter member of the National Committee on Red Cross Nursing Service. In 1917, she was in the first hospital unit to sail from the United States for France, as a member of the Lakeside Base Hospital Unit of Cleveland. In Paris she worked with the Red Cross Children's Bureau. She was chief nurse at the American Red Cross Hospital Number 5, at
Auteuil. She went to work for the Balkan Commission, as Chief Nurse for northern Serbia, based at Belgrade Hospital. She contracted typhus at Palanka and returned to the United States in July 1919. The Serbian government awarded Leete the
Order of St. Sava for her wartime efforts. which involved extensive travel and lecturing. "This twentieth century does belong to the child," she wrote, "and unless we as nurses — not just public health nurses, but all nurses — meet this challenge... we shall be liable to the reproach of those who follow us." From 1925 until her death, she was superintendent at a convalescent home in
Far Rockaway, New York. ==Personal life==