Helen Scott Hay, a trailblazing nurse who served with the American Red Cross during World War I and trained nurses all over the world, has deep ties to northwestern Illinois.

Hay was born in 1869 in Lanark, a town in Carroll County in northwestern Illinois. Affectionately called “Nettie” by her family, she attended Savanna High School, today known as West Carroll High School.

After graduation, she earned a degree from Northwestern University in Evanston before attending Illinois Training School for Nurses in Chicago and graduating at the top of her class. Trained nursing was a relatively new occupation at the time, and the nursing school was founded by prominent progressive women who saw a need to improve nursing care for Chicago’s sick poor. Students did much of their training at Cook County Hospital. From 1906 to 1912, Hay was superintendent of the nursing school.