Historical Note

Linna Hamilton Denny was born March 30, 1864 in Peoria, Illinois .  She was the daughter of Alexander Jordan Denny and Irene Warssia (Payne) Denny.  Miss Denny attended and graduated from Danville High School, Danville, Illinois .  Alexander Denny moved his family to Citronelle, Alabama in 1880 and to Birmingham, Alabama in 1886.  Linna Denny held her first position as a schoolteacher in a one-room rural school in Citronelle.  Denny graduated from the Illinois Training School for Nurses in Chicago in 1893.  Denny furthered her education by attending the Teacher’s College at Columbia University, New York .  Following her education, Denny held several positions throughout the U.S. She spent one summer in charge of the Section Memorial Baby Tent in Chicago, Illinois, before becoming the superintendent of nurses at the Mitchell and Maury Sanatorium in Memphis, Tennessee .  In 1907, she held a resident nurse position at Athens College in Athens, Alabama .  In Birmingham , she served as supervisor of nurses at Talley Infirmary, taught home hygiene and care of the sick classes, and was a public school nurse from 1908-1917.

Denny became interested in the Red Cross while caring for malaria patients in Marietta, Georgia .  She completed the paper work and examinations to become the 46^th Red Cross nurse in the United States and the first from Alabama .  She was instrumental in the organization of a local Red Cross Nursing Service committee in Birmingham .  In 1900, the Red Cross called for volunteers to serve in the Galveston, Texas flood relief effort.  Denny was among a group of Birmingham nurses who answered the call.  It was in Galveston that Denny earned the right to wear her Red Cross Nurse’s badge.  For her outstanding service in Galveston , Denny received a citation and recognition from the Galveston Chamber of Commerce.  Upon her return home, Denny’s fellow Alabamians recognized her as the state’s first Red Cross nurse.

During World War I, Denny served the Red Cross as Chief Nurse of Red Cross Sanitary Unit # 8 in Camp McClellan in Anniston, Alabama .  She had requested overseas duty during the war, but was turned down because her service at the camp was essential and Red Cross nurses were scarce.  Her service in Anniston included battling the influenza epidemic, keeping a five-mile restricted zone around the camp free from disease, delivering milk and soup to families in their homes, and vaccinating school children.  In 1920, Denny’s request for overseas duty was granted and she was sent to Poland .  She arrived in Warsaw in March 1920 and served as supervisor of the Prague hospital.  The nurses in Poland provided first aid and care to the wounded and dying Polish soldiers who were still fighting the Russians.  During her service in Poland, Denny represented the American Nursing Association of Alabama as a delegate to the International Council of Nurses in Helsinski, Finland .

Upon her return to Birmingham , Denny continued to serve the public health field.  She was instrumental in the organization of the Alabama State Nurses Association; she served as the association’s first president and the first executive secretary in 1927.  Denny campaigned for the first Nurse Practice Act in Alabama , which led to state registration for graduate nurses.  From 1925 to 1942, Denny was the executive secretary of the State Board of Nurses’ Examiners and Registration.  She also organized summer class for nurses at the University of Alabama and at Tuskegee Institute.    In 1952, the University of Alabama honored Linna Denny with an honorary degree of Doctor of Humanities.  In the ceremonies held in the Jefferson-Hillman Hospital Auditorium, Dr. John Gallalee, President of the University of Alabama, conferred the Doctor of Humanities upon Denny making her the first nurse in Alabama to receive an honorary degree.  Also in 1952, a portrait of Denny was unveiled in ceremonies at St. Vincent’s Hospital, Birmingham .  The portrait, which depicts Denny at the time of her honorary degree, was later presented to the University of Alabama School of Nursing and currently hangs in the nursing school building at UAB.

On May 22, 1955, Linna Denny died in Birmingham , a week after the Red Cross presented her a medal for over 50 years of service.  Funeral services were held at the Episcopal Church of the Advent in Birmingham .  Denny was buried in a family plot in Danville, Illinois .