Lenah H. Sutcliffe Higbee (1874- 1941), US Navy Nurse Corps
She was born as Lenah H. Sutcliffe and trained as a nurse at the New York Postgraduate Hospital in 1899 and shortly afterwards entered private medical practice. Lenah Higbee trained at Fordham Hospital, New York City in 1908 and was one of the first women to join the newly formed US Navy Nurse Corps. These twenty women, later referred to in the Navy as "The Sacred Twenty", were the first women to formally serve in the United States Navy.
In April 1909, Higbee was promoted and became Chief Nurse at Norfolk Naval Hospital. Higbee, by now widowed by Lieutenant Colonel John Henley Higbee, was transferred to the position of Superintendent of the Navy Nurse Corps in 1911. She thus succeeded the first Superintendent Esther Hasson. In this position she led the US Navy Nurse Corps during the First World War. When she was awarded the Navy Cross in 1918 in recognition of her service, she became the first living woman to receive the honour. She took her leave from the military on 23 November 1922.
She was buried at Arlington National Cemetery after her death.