Retired Maj. Nancy Leftenant-Colon, of Amityville, broke color barrier, dies at 104

Nancy Leftenant-Colon, when she served in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps in the 1940s and 1950s. Credit: Courtesy Nancy Leftenant-Colon
Two things were clear for retired Maj. Nancy Leftenant-Colon as a girl — she wanted to offer comfort as a nurse, and she wanted to proudly serve her country — despite obstacles that made both challenging for a young Black woman in the 1940s.
“It was the only thing I ever wanted to do,” she told Newsday in 2020.
She accomplished both feats, and along the way became the first Black woman to be admitted into the U.S. Army Nurse Corps.
The pioneering nurse from Amityville died of natural causes at 104 on Jan. 8, her family said, leaving behind a legacy of breaking down barriers and perseverance.
“She’s opened so many doors,” Gilda Leftenant, of Bowie, Maryland, a great-niece, said Saturday. “She would say that she was put here for a reason.”
Her reason was nursing, though Leftenant-Colon’s passion for public service prevailed over bigotry she faced as a young woman.
Born Sept. 29, 1920, in Goose Creek, South Carolina, Leftenant-Colon was one of 12 children born to James and Eunice Leftenant, who were the children of slaves. The family joined The Great Migration, moving to Long Island in search of a better future, when Nancy was 3.
In 1939, she graduated from Amityville Memorial High School and set out with a dream to become an Army nurse.
“She did whatever was necessary,” recalled her nephew, Christopher Leftenant, of Wyandanch. “She cleaned houses in Massapequa to get money to go to the only school that would accept her."
But her plans to sign up as a military nurse were thwarted after graduating from the Lincoln School for Nurses in the Bronx in 1941 when she learned Black nurses weren’t accepted.
Still, she persevered, enlisting as an Army Nurse Corps reservist in 1945, where she was assigned to Lowell General Hospital in Fort Devens, Massachusetts, to treat wounded World War II soldiers in a segregated ward.
“Even when everything was literally stacked up against her, she stood proud, put that uniform on and did what she had to do,” Gilda Leftenant said. “She loved taking care of people.”
Leftenant-Colon became the first Black woman to be admitted to the Army Nurse Corps after President Harry S. Truman ordered the military to desegregate in 1948.
From there, she joined the Air Force and served as a flight nurse during the Korean and Vietnam wars, evacuating wounded soldiers and working in makeshift wards in war zones.
Years later, Leftenant-Colon recalled the racism she faced even in her uniform. There was the white passerby who spit in her face. A diner that refused to serve her. Choices she had to make for her own safety while traveling, like refraining from drinking to avoid stopping to use the bathroom.
“You cry on the inside but you couldn’t let anybody see you in that state,” she told Newsday in 2020. “I don’t know anything that would turn me away from nursing. That was my baby.”
Her nephew Christopher said his aunt’s stories both angered and inspired him.
“I always admired my aunt. She let everything go, never made a wave,” he said. “And she made the biggest progress.”
She married Air Force officer Bayard Colon, who died in 1972, and retired from military service in 1965. The couple did not have children.
Leftenant-Colon was a school nurse at Amityville High School until 1984, remembered for inspiring students by telling them: “The sky’s the limit.” Today, the school’s library bears her name.

Nancy Leftenant-Colon in her Amityville home in January 2023. She was the only woman ever to serve as president of the Tuskegee Airmen. Credit: Howard Schnapp
In 1989 she became the first woman to serve as president of the Tuskegee Airmen Inc., an organization that preserves the legacy of the storied pilots.
Her brother, 2nd Lt. Samuel G. Leftenant, was a Tuskegee Airman lost in combat when his plane went down over Austria in April 1945. He was posthumously awarded the Air Medal and the Purple Heart and given a full military funeral in 2016.
She was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by President George W. Bush in 2007.
Gilda Leftenant said she will miss her great aunt’s enduring optimism, talking politics and watching old Westerns — Nancy’s favorite — and knows her legacy lives on in ways big and small.
Her own daughter, Tatiana, is now pursuing a nursing degree in Delaware, undoubtedly influenced by “Nurse Nancy.”
“She wants to be just like her,” Gilda said.
Leftenant-Colon is survived by a sister, Amy Leftenant, of Amityville, along with a group of nieces and nephews.
A funeral service will be held Jan. 25 at Zion Cathedral in Freeport, with a viewing at 10 a.m. and celebration service at 11 a.m. Leftenant-Colon will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, her great niece said.
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