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Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesProfile: Nurse, Veteran and Inventor Annie Day Henry

Profile: Nurse, Veteran and Inventor Annie Day Henry

Annie Day HenryAnnie Day Henry decided she wanted to be a nurse at the age of nine. Little did she know the multiple paths she would travel, always growing in the field of nursing.

Her nursing work has led her to be a caregiver, teacher, recruiter, negotiator and mediator.

Henry, who is originally from Florida, thought about going the certification route to nursing, but her high school guidance counselor suggested the collegiate route instead. She attended Tuskegee University and graduated with a bachelor of science degree in nursing in 1970. Her first nursing job was at the Harlem Hospital Unit in New York City, where she became head nurse.

Henry said she wanted to serve her country so in 1971 she enlisted in the Air Force Nursing Corp as a commissioned officer and she became the first female to attain the rank of first lieutenant.

“I wanted to enhance my nursing skills and offer more to my country through the military,” Henry says. “I wanted to really get into the nitty gritty of nursing.”

She met her Crucian husband, Dr. Claudius L. Henry, while working in New York. She went to him, while he was a resident, after being pricked by a needle at work fearing she may have contracted Hepatitis C.

“He asked for my phone number and I thought that was very unprofessional of him,” Henry says. She played hard to get, refusing to go out with him. “When he stopped calling I called him.”

They married and moved to St. Croix in 1975. They have two grown sons, Shawn, a chef, and Claudius Jr., a registered nurse.

She has been a public health nurse, a health manger for Head Start, and a nurse recruiter for Gov. Juan F. Luis Hospital. She was a coordinator and instructor at St. Croix Career and Technical Education Center in the practical nursing program.

Henry has been in the forefront fighting for the rights of nurses.

“I have fought and come forward for better wages and working conditions for nurses in the Department of Health and Juan F. Luis Hospital,” Henry says. As a chief negotiator and mediator she has testified in the Senate for fellow nurses.

She is a charter member of the V.I. Chapter of Tuskegee Airmen, a member of the Zeta Phi Beta sorority and a delegate to the American Nurses Association. Henry also is in the Caribbean Nurses Association, staying abreast of and learning about diseases relevant to the Caribbean and their treatments.

Henry has been recognized nationally and locally in her 41-year nursing career. In 1985 she was chosen as a Who’s Who in American Nursing and she was the 1995 St. Croix Nurse of the Year.

Henry is an American Legion member and auxiliary member of the Enrique Romero Nieves Post 102 in Estate Peter’s Rest. She was the first female to be a vice commander of the post and district service officer for American Legion Representative for the District 10 in Washington D.C. Her focus in the Legion is helping veterans with health benefits.

Henry is also an inventor. While at an American Legion conference in Hawaii she was taking a walk and heard a voice. While walking she was carrying her cell phone and room key, the voice told her to invent a bra with a pocket to hold valuables. She says it was the voice of God and he spoke to her three times.

She came up with the Bra Pocket that allows easy access and concealment of important items when it isn’t safe or convenient to carry a purse.

In 2009 Henry’s company, Ladiday Enterprises, LLC, was awarded the Nascent Business of the Year award by the VI Small Business Development Center. The bra is available at five locations in the British and US Virgin Islands.

She is working part time for the Department of Human Services in the Senior Medical Patrol Program that detects and reports Medicare fraud and educates senior citizens. She is the office nurse manger in her husband’s orthopedic practice that they will eventually be closing, due to his health.

“I never see myself retiring,” Henry said. “I want to always keep growing and you can’t grow in retirement. I will keep abreast of what is happening in the world and see how I can fit in to make a better world.”

She said she always lives by the American Legion motto “to serve God and country.”

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