In Memoriam

Mary Elizabeth Lancaster Carnegie (1916-2008)

Mary Elizabeth Lancaster Carnegie, longtime nursing educator and civil rights leader, has died from heart disease at her home in Chevy Chase, Maryland. She was 91 years old.

Carnegie was a native of Baltimore. She received her initial training at the Lincoln School of Nursing in New York City. She then earned a bachelor’s degree from West Virginia State College. Later she received a master’s degree from Syracuse University and a Ph.D. from New York University.

In 1943 Carnegie founded the nursing program at what is today Hampton University in Virginia. Two years later in 1945 she was named dean of the nursing school at Florida A&M University. While in Tallahassee she successfully led the fight to integrate the state’s black and white nursing associations.

Carnegie was the author of three books. For 30 years she was editor of the American Journal of Nursing.

Howard University has endowed a visiting professorship in nursing research in Carnegie’s name.

Henrietta Bell Wells (1912-2008)

Henrietta Bell Wells, the only female member of the Wiley College debate team that was featured in the 2007 movie The Great Debaters, has died in Baytown, Texas. She was 95 years old.

Wells was the last surviving member of the 1930 Wiley College debate team that participated in the first collegiate interracial debate. After graduating from Wiley College, Wells married an Episcopal priest and worked as a social worker and a teacher in the Houston public school system.