Abbie Voorhies
*Abbie Voorhies was born on this date in 1915. She was a Black nurse and military officer.
Abbie Edith Voorhies was born in Louisiana and graduated from Kansas City General Hospital Nursing School in Missouri. Her first job was with Charity Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana. She said she joined the military after hearing that nurses in the Army Nurse Corps were not discriminated against in pay, as she was in Louisiana.
This second lieutenant was transferred from Camp Livingston in Louisiana, where she escorted four other nurses to Tuskegee Army Airfield (TAAF). She was a medical and night nurse in wards three and four. She married Mac Ross on June 3, 1943, in Michigan. Mac Ross was a member of the 99th Pursuit Squadron. He was one of the five in the first class of Tuskegee Airmen Army Flying School graduates, which included Benjamin O Davis, Jr.
By March 15, 1946, Abbie Ross had been promoted to first lieutenant and was one of the first five nurses transferred from TAAF to LAAB as the Tuskegee base closed. She was eventually promoted to captain. She later remarried and had two boys, settling in Los Angeles, California. The former Army Nurse Corps Captain died on February 26, 2020.
