Edith DeVoe

Edith Mazie DeVoe was born on October 24, 1921{{sfn|U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs|2014}} in Washington, D. C. to Sadie Frances (née Dent) and Joseph Edward DeVoe.{{sfn|U.S. Census|1930|p=5A}}{{sfn|The Washington Post|1994}} Both of her parents were employed in government service{{sfn|Cromer|1952|p=5}} and the family consisted of four children, Elizabeth, Edith, Joseph and Sadie.{{sfn|U.S. Census|1930|p=5A}} Her brother would die in 1934 and both of her sisters would become nurses.{{sfn|The Washington Post|1994}}{{sfn|Cromer|1952|p=5}} She completed her primary education attending Randall Junior High and Dunbar High Schools.{{sfn|Cromer|1952|p=5}} DeVoe enrolled in nursing school with her sister Elizabeth at the Freedman's Hospital nursing school,{{sfn|U.S. Census|1940|p=1B}} graduating in 1942. She then supplemented her education with public health nursing courses in Richmond, Virginia at the St. Philip School of Nursing.{{sfn|The Washington Post|2000}}

DeVoe began her career working for the Visiting Nurse Association.{{sfn|The Washington Post|2000}} On 18 April 1945, one week after the first black navy nurse, Phyllis Mae Dailey, was assigned to active duty, DeVoe was commissioned as an ensign in the United States Navy Reserve. She was assigned to her first active duty on 13 June 1945,{{sfn|Sterner|1997|p=194}} and served for two years during World War II at the Boston Navy Yard. In mid-1947, she was assigned to the Naval Mine Warfare Test Station, in Solomons, Maryland.{{sfn|Cromer|1952|p=5}} On 6 January 1948, DeVoe was transferred to the Navy Nurse Corps and assigned to the Navy Communication Annex Dispensary in Washington, D. C., as the first black nurse in the regular navy.{{sfn|Sterner|1997|p=194}}{{sfn|Sobocinski|2014}}{{sfn|The Pittsburgh Courier|1948|p=1}} In March 1948, when Congress was deliberating on whether women should permanently become part of the military, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Harlem’s Representative to the House argued that the Nurses’ Corps should be permanent, that the military should be fully desegregated and emphasized that DeVoe was the only black nurse serving the 19,337 black servicemen in the navy.{{sfn|House of Representatives Hearings|1948|pp=5733–5734}}

In 1949, DeVoe earned the rank of Lieutenant (JG) and was assigned to the St. Albans Naval Hospital in the Queens borough of Long Island.{{sfn|The New York Age|1949|p=4}} The following year, she became the first black nurse assigned to a duty station outside the U.S. mainland,{{sfn|Sobocinski|2014}} when she was sent to the Tripler Army-Navy Hospital, one of the few medical centers serving multiple service branches. Her assignment there, was to assist with the evacuees and injured serving in the Korean War. On May 1, 1952, DeVoe became a full Lieutenant and in August was transferred to the naval hospital in Pasadena, California.{{sfn|Cromer|1952|p=5}} She was in a car accident in 1955, while serving at the Oakland Naval Hospital{{sfn|The Bakersfield Californian|1955|p=15}} and on 1 April 1956, she was placed on the temporary disabilities list.{{sfn|Sterner|1997|p=194}} She returned to duty and retired from military service in 1960 in Oakland, returning to Washington, D. C.{{sfn|The Washington Post|2000}}

DeVoe died from lung cancer on November 17, 2000, at Cherry Lane Nursing Center in Laurel, Prince George's County, Maryland{{sfn|The Washington Post|2000}} and was buried at Quantico National Cemetery in Triangle, Virginia.{{sfn|U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs|2014}}

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• {{cite news|last1=Cromer|first1=Lucille|title=Navy Nurse Breezes In, Filled With Island Magic|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/18999557/the_new_york_age/|access-date=7 April 2018|newspaper=The New York Age|date=August 9, 1952|location=New York, New York|page=5|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite web|last1=Sobocinski|first1=Andre|title=A Brief History of African-American Navy Nurses|url=http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=79279|website=Navy.Mil|publisher=U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery Public Affairs|access-date=7 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170604130936/http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=79279|archive-date=4 June 2017|location=Washington, D.C.|date=February 24, 2014}}
• {{cite book|last1=Sterner|first1=Doris M.|title=In and Out of Harm's Way: A history of the Navy Nurse Corps|date=1997|publisher=Peanut Butter Publishing|location=Seattle, Washington|isbn=0-89716-706-6|url=https://archive.org/stream/inoutofharmsway00dori#page/194/mode/1up}}
• {{cite web|ref={{harvid|U.S. Census|1930}}|author=|title=1930 U.S. Census, District of Columbia, Police Precinct 5|url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9R46-4V9?i=9&cc=1810731|website=FamilySearch|publisher=National Archives and Records Administration|access-date=7 April 2018|location=Washington, D.C.|date=April 3, 1930|page=5A|id=NARA microfilm series T626, roll 295, lines 41–46}}
• {{cite web|ref={{harvid|U.S. Census|1940}}|author=|title=1940 U.S. Census, District of Columbia, Police Precinct 13, Freedman's Hospital|url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89M1-5DK7?i=1&cc=2000219|website=FamilySearch|publisher=National Archives and Records Administration|access-date=7 April 2018|location=Washington, D.C.|date=April 3, 1940|page=1B|id=NARA microfilm series T627, roll 571, lines 58–59}}
• {{cite web|ref={{harvid|U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs|2014}}|author=|title=Devoe, Edith M|url=https://gravelocator.cem.va.gov/index.html?cemetery=N872|website=Nationwide Gravesite Locator|publisher=U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs|access-date=7 April 2018|location=Washington, D.C.|date=June 18, 2014|quote=Devoe, Edith M: Lt. US Navy, World War II, Korea (10/24/1921-11/17/2000), Quantico National Cemetery, section 15 site 431|archive-date=7 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180407141519/https://gravelocator.cem.va.gov/index.html?cemetery=N872|url-status=dead}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Washington Post|2000}}|author=|title=Edith Marie [sic] DeVoe|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2000/11/23/obituaries/960c22f0-9bae-49b9-a0dd-0fcabae83b8a/|access-date=7 April 2018|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=November 23, 2000|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180407143516/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2000/11/23/obituaries/960c22f0-9bae-49b9-a0dd-0fcabae83b8a/|archive-date=7 April 2018|location=Washington, D. C.}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Pittsburgh Courier|1948}}|author=|title=In Regular Navy|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/18999680/in_regular_navy_the_pittsburgh_courier/|access-date=7 April 2018|publisher=The Pittsburgh Courier|date=January 31, 1948|location=Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania|page=1|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The New York Age|1949}}|author=|title=Luncheon for the Lady Lieutenant|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/18999634/luncheon_for_the_lady_lieutenant_the/|access-date=7 April 2018|newspaper=The New York Age|date=March 19, 1949|location=New York, New York|page=4|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Bakersfield Californian|1955}}|author=|title=Near Greenfield|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/susun-wilkinson-disaster-clipping-aug-27-1955-632068/|access-date=7 April 2018|publisher=The Bakersfield Californian|date=August 27, 1955|location=Bakersfield, California|page=15|via = Newspaperarchive.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Washington Post|1994}}|author=|title=Sadie Frances Dent DeVoe|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1994/03/18/lewis-w-shollenberger-dies/fe1b7a37-5cc5-485b-8a53-5a18953b32e6/|access-date=7 April 2018|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=March 18, 1994|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180407152450/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1994/03/18/lewis-w-shollenberger-dies/fe1b7a37-5cc5-485b-8a53-5a18953b32e6/|archive-date=7 April 2018|location=Washington, D. C.}}
• {{cite report|ref={{harvid|House of Representatives Hearings|1948}}|author=|title=Subcommittee hearings on S. 1641, to establish the Women's Army Corps in the Regular Army, to authorize the enlistment and appointment of women in the regular Navy and Marine Corps and the Naval and Marine Corps Reserve, and for other purposes/House of Representatives, Committee on Armed Services, Subcommittee no. 3, Organization and Mobilization|date=1948|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|location=Washington, D. C.|oclc=22372937|pages=5733–5736|chapter-url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951p00492329n;view=1up;seq=175|chapter=Statement of Hon. Adam C. Powell, United States Representative in Congress, Twenty-Second District, State of New York|id=No. 238}}

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Category:1921 births

Category:2000 deaths

Category:Military personnel from Washington, D.C.

Category:American dietitians

Category:African-American nurses

Category:United States Navy personnel of the Korean War

Category:Deaths from lung cancer in Maryland

Category:Burials at Quantico National Cemetery

Category:20th-century African-American women

Category:20th-century African-American people

Category:Female United States Navy nurses in World War II

Category:Female United States Navy officers

Category:United States Navy Nurse Corps officers