The tortoise and the hare author and illustrator
Tortoise and the hare moral...
Nancy Leftenant-Colon
American nurse (1920–2025)
Nancy Leftenant-Colon (September 29, 1920 – January 8, 2025) became the first African American in the regular United States Army Nurse Corps in March 1948 after it was desegregated.[1]
Biography
Leftenant was born September 29, 1920, in Goose Creek near Charleston.
Her parents were Eunice and James Leftenant and she was one of their 12 children. Her father was the son of a freed slave.
When was the tortoise and the hare published
The family moved to New York in 1923 and built their own home in Amityville, Long Island. She hyphenated her husband's name after they married, to Leftenant-Colon. She died in Amityville, New York on January 8, 2025, at the age of 104.[2][3]
She finished high school in 1939 and then trained at the Lincoln School for Nurses in the Bronx and then worked in a local hospital.
In January 1945 she was allowed to join the United States Army Nurse Corps as a Second Lieutenant reservist and was initially assigned to Lowel