Dickens, Helen Octavia (1909–2001)
Dickens, Helen Octavia (1909–2001)
African-American surgeon. Name variations: Helen Henderson. Born Jan 1, 1909, in Dayton, Ohio; died Jan 24, 2001, in Pennsylvania; dau. of Charles Warren Dickens (former slave) and Daisy Jane Dickens (domestic servant); University of Illinois College of Medicine, MD, 1934; University of Pennsylvania Medical School, MS, 1945; m. Purvis Sinclair Henderson (physician), 1943; children: Dr. Jayne Henderson Brown.
Completed residency at Harlem Hospital (1943–46) and was certified by American Board of Obstetric and Gynecology; began serving as director of the Mercy Douglass Hospital Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Philadelphia (1948); was the 1st black woman to become a fellow of the American College of Surgeons (1950); became associate dean in the Office for Minority Affairs at University of Pennsylvania (1969).