Dr. M. Elizabeth Carnegie, a Baltimore-born pioneer in African-American nursing education who became dean of the Florida A&M; University School of Nursing, died of hypertensive cardiovascular disease Wednesday at her Chevy Chase home. She was 91.
Mary Elizabeth Lancaster was born in Baltimore. Her parents divorced when she was a child, and she was adopted by an aunt and lived in Washington. She earned a diploma at the Lincoln School of Nursing in New York, a bachelor's degree from West Virginia State College, a master's degree from Syracuse University and a doctorate from New York University.
She helped found the nursing program at Hampton University in Virginia, where the nursing archives are named in her honor. She was also dean of the Florida A&M; University School of Nursing in Tallahassee. She spent 35 years on the editorial staff of the American Journal of Nursing.
The National League for Nursing published the third edition of her book, The Path We Tread: Blacks in Nursing Worldwide, 1834-1994.
She was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the American Nurses' Association in June 2000.
Services will be held at 11 a.m. tomorrow at Howard University's Andrew Rankin Chapel, Howard Place and 6th Street N.W. in Washington.
Survivors include a brother, Roland Davis of Washington; and nieces. Her husband of 10 years, Eric Carnegie, died in 1954.