Born on February 8, 1871, near Leesburg, Virginia, Lucy Minnigerode was educated in private schools. She entered the Training School for Nurses of Bellevue Hospital in New York City in 1899 and in 1905 completed her studies and became a registered nurse. She was in private practice until 1910, when she became superintendent of nurses at the Episcopal Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital in Washington, D.C. Later she held a similar post at the Savannah Hospital, Georgia.
In 1914 she headed one of the first Red Cross hospital units (a unit comprised 3 surgeons, 12 nurses, and supplies) sent to Europe for war-relief work, and during 1914╨1915 she served at a hospital at the Polytechnic Institute in Kiev, Russia. Her work there earned her the Cross of St. Anne, awarded her by the czar in 1915. In 1915╨1917 she was director of nurses at Columbia Hospital for Women in Washington, D.C., and in 1917╨1919 she was again associated with the Red Cross. In 1919 she was asked to make a tour of inspection of the hospitals of the U.S. Public Health Service. Her report led to the creation of a department of nurses within the service, and she was immediately appointed superintendent. She held that post for the rest of her life. She recruited and organized a large corps of nurses to serve in hospitals established to care for World War I veterans. Her pioneering work in that field was later taken over by the Veterans╒ Bureau following its establishment in August 1921. In 1925 she was awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal of the International Red Cross. By 1935 her job entailed the supervision of 650 nurses in 26 hospitals of the Public Health service. Lucy Minnigerode died in Alexandria, Virginia, on March 24, 1935.
