Hazel Johnson-Brown Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth and Family

Johnson-Brown died in Wilmington, Delaware, on August 5, 2011 at the age of 83. She was while en route to the hospital; after her arrival, it was realized that the cause of Johnson-Brown’s death was Alzheimer’s disease. She was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

In 1990, during Operation Desert Storm, Johnson-Brown volunteered to work in the surgical suite at Fort Belvoir, Virginia’s Army Hospital. Johnson-Brown spent her last remaining years with her sister, Gloria Smith, in Wilmington, Delaware.

After Johnson-Brown retired from the army in 1983 she headed the American Nurses Association’s government relations unit as well as directed the George Mason University’s Center for Health Policy as an assistant professor and later a professor on her own. A key to Johnson-Brown’s success was driven by her immense well-rounded personality as well as her intellect. Johnson-Brown treated everyone the same and demanded that in return. “She recalled going with her mother to a hot dog stand in Philadelphia. Several times the waitress walked past them to serve white customers first. When the waitress finally delivered their order, Gen. Johnson-Brown turned it away. ‘Now you eat it,’ she told the waitress. To her mother she said, ‘Let’s go.'” In an interview she stated that she was never a “quiet dissenter” when it came to slights she suffered as a black woman, inside uniform and outside as well. She “always was a people person,” her sister Gloria Smith remarks. Johnson-Brown’s marriage to David Brown ended in divorce without children. Johnson-Brown developed Alzheimer’s disease in later life.

In 1981, Johnson married David Brown. She added on his name to hers and was known from then on as Hazel Johnson-Brown. However, their marriage did not last and they eventually divorced.

Hazel Johnson-Brown enlisted in the United States Army in 1955, seven years after President Harry Truman eliminated segregation in the military. Johnson-Brown’s obituary states she rose “in the ranks as she impressed her superiors with her skill in the operating room”. She was a talented surgeon who took assignments across the world, including Asia. Johnson-Brown served in Japan, and trained nurses on their way to Vietnam. She was assigned to go to Vietnam as well, but fell ill. The unit was attacked shortly after arriving in Vietnam and the nurse who took Johnson-Brown’s place was killed in the surprise attack along with numerous others of the group. In 1977 Johnson-Brown was mentioned in the magazine Ebony, where referred to her as “one of the real ‘heavies’ in her field”. The magazine also anticipated Johnson-Brown to become “the first black woman general”.

At the age of 12, Johnson wanted to become a nurse. Johnson applied and was denied admission to Chester County Hospital School of Nursing for being black. She then moved to New York City to attend the Harlem School of Nursing in 1947. Johnson’s nursing career started at the Harlem Hospital emergency ward as a beginning level staff nurse.

Hazel Winifred Johnson-Brown (October 10, 1927 – August 5, 2011) was a nurse and educator who served in the United States Army from 1955 to 1983. In 1979, she became the first Black female general in the United States Army and the first Black chief of the United States Army Nurse Corps. She was also the Director of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Nursing.

Hazel Winifred Johnson was born on October 10, 1927 in West Chester, Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of Clarence L. Johnson Sr. and Garnett Henley Johnson. Johnson was one of seven children, she had four brothers and two sisters. Her parents were farmers who made a living from livestock and selling fruits and vegetables.