Gertrude DeWitt Nelson (December 26, 1898 - November 29, 2001) was an African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 military, civilian, and American Red Cross

American Red Cross

The American Red Cross , also known as the American National Red Cross, is a volunteer-led, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education inside the United States. It is the designated U.S...

 nurse from Louisiana

Louisiana

Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

 whose career spanned much of the 20th century. She was born at the end of the 19th century and died at the start of the 21st century.

Nelson was born in Colfax

Colfax, Louisiana

Colfax is a town in and the parish seat of Grant Parish, Louisiana, United States. The town, founded in 1869, is named for the vice president of the United States, Schuyler M. Colfax , who served in the first term of U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant, for whom the parish is named. Colfax is part of...

, the seat of Grant Parish, which is named for Schuyler M. Colfax

Schuyler Colfax

Schuyler Colfax, Jr. was a United States Representative from Indiana , Speaker of the House of Representatives , and the 17th Vice President of the United States . To date, he is one of only two Americans to have served as both House speaker and vice president.President Ulysses S...

, the vice president under U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...

. She received her early education from the J.B. LaFarge School in Alexandria

Alexandria, Louisiana

Alexandria is a city in and the parish seat of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on the south bank of the Red River in almost the exact geographic center of the state. It is the principal city of the Alexandria metropolitan area which encompasses all of Rapides and Grant parishes....

, the seat of Rapides Parish, in central Louisiana. On June 20, 1929, she earned a bachelor's degree

Bachelor's degree

A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...

 in nursing from the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama

Tuskegee, Alabama

Tuskegee is a city in Macon County, Alabama, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 11,846 and is designated a Micropolitan Statistical Area. Tuskegee has been an important site in various stages of African American history....

, an historically black college, which included George Washington Carver

George Washington Carver

George Washington Carver , was an American scientist, botanist, educator, and inventor. The exact day and year of his birth are unknown; he is believed to have been born into slavery in Missouri in January 1864....

 and Booker T. Washington

Booker T. Washington

Booker Taliaferro Washington was an American educator, author, orator, and political leader. He was the dominant figure in the African-American community in the United States from 1890 to 1915...

 on the faculty and in the administration. After her Tuskegee years, Nelson taught at Bishop College

Bishop College

Bishop College was a historically black college, founded in Marshall, Texas, and later moved to Dallas, Texas, that operated from 1881 to 1988.-History:...

 in Marshall

Marshall, Texas

Marshall is a city in Harrison County in the northeastern corner of Texas. Marshall is a major cultural and educational center in East Texas and the tri-state area. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of Marshall was about 23,523...

, the seat of Harrison County

Harrison County, Texas

Harrison County is a county of the U.S. state of Texas. In 2000, its population was 62,110. It is named for Jonas Harrison, a lawyer and Texas revolutionary. It is located in the Ark-La-Tex region...

, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

. She was also the dean of women at Bishop, another historically black institution which opened its doors in 1881 and closed permanently, having relocated to Dallas

Dallas, Texas

Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...

, in 1988.

Thereafter, Nelson worked as a nurse at a hospital on Rikers Island

Rikers Island

Rikers Island is New York City's main jail complex, as well as the name of the island on which it sits, in the East River between Queens and the mainland Bronx, adjacent to the runways of LaGuardia Airport. The island itself is part of the borough of the Bronx, though it is included as part of...

 in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, where one of her patients for a time was Mary Mallon

Mary Mallon

Mary Mallon , also known as Typhoid Mary, was the first person in the United States identified as an asymptomatic carrier of the pathogen associated with typhoid fever. She was presumed to have infected some 53 people, three of whom died, over the course of her career as a cook...

, or "Typhoid Mary". She was later recruited by the Red Cross for duty with the U.S. Army Nurse Corps during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. She achieved the rank of major before she retired from the Army and returned to her home area in Pineville

Pineville, Louisiana

Pineville is a city in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is adjacent to the city of Alexandria, and is part of that city's Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 13,829 at the 2000 census....

, across the Red River from Alexandria. She was a nurse for the Cenla [Central Louisiana] Community Action Committee, the Alexandria-Pineville "anti-poverty

Poverty

Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...

" program established by Great Society

Great Society

The Great Society was a set of domestic programs in the United States promoted by President Lyndon B. Johnson and fellow Democrats in Congress in the 1960s. Two main goals of the Great Society social reforms were the elimination of poverty and racial injustice...

 legislation. She worked in area hospital

Hospital

A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....

s, nursing home

Nursing home

A nursing home, convalescent home, skilled nursing unit , care home, rest home, or old people's home provides a type of care of residents: it is a place of residence for people who require constant nursing care and have significant deficiencies with activities of daily living...

s and did volunteer work for many years.

Nelson died in the Veterans Affairs Medical Nursing Home in Pineville at the age of 102 years and eleven months. She was survived by two adopted children, Gerald Williams of Atlanta, Georgia

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

, and Linda Nelson of the Taylor Hill community in Rapides Parish.

Services were held in Nelson's home church, the Union Baptist Church in Colfax. Interment was in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Pineville with full military honors through the Alexandria/Pineville Veterans Honor Guard. She often attended the Good Hope Baptist Church in Pineville.

On December 27, 1998, then Mayor

Mayor

In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

 Fred H. Baden

Fred Baden

Frederick Herman Baden, Sr., known as Fred Baden , was a Democratic mayor of Pineville, a small city across the Red River from Alexandria in Rapides Parish, Louisiana...

 issued a proclamation declaring "Gertrude Nelson Day" in Pineville. It was one day after her hundredth birthday.

The family requested memorials to the Alzheimer's Association, P.O. Box 2471, Monroe, Louisiana 71207.