Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Kenny, Elizabeth, 1880-1952
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
- Kenny, Elizabeth, 1886-1952
Other form(s) of name
- Kenny, Sister, 1886-1952
- Kenny, Sister, 1880-1952
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1880-1952
History
Elizabeth Kenny was a self-trained nurse who started her career on the Darling Downs in Queensland before serving as a staff nurse in the Australian Army Nursing Service in 1915. She was promoted to Sister in 1917 and continued to use this title after her she left the army. She became well-known for her controversial clinical management of poliomyelitis and cerebal palsy in children that she cared for in her clinic in Townsville from 1932. Although strongly opposed by many in the medical profession, her treatments became popular as the results proved more positive than traditional methods of immobilization. She became a cult figure around the world, particularly in North America where she started many clinics during the poliomyelitis epidemics of the 1940s. She died in Toowoomba in 1952. A film about her life, Sister Kenny premiered in 1946.
Places
Legal status
Functions, occupations and activities
Mandates/sources of authority
Internal structures/genealogy
General context
Relationships area
Access points area
Subject access points
Place access points
Occupations
Control area
Authority record identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Revised
Level of detail
Full
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
Revised, FF, 04-Jun-2020.
Language(s)
Script(s)
Sources
Ross Patrick (1983). 'Kenny, Elizabeth (1880-1952)'. Australian Dictionary of Biography, accessed online 04-Jun-2020.
Maintenance notes
Revised with standardized form of name according to other rules, other forms of name, updated history, authority record identifiers and sources. Library of Congress authority has incorrect date of birth, have used as standardized form of name according to other rules. FF, 04-Jun-2020.