Mabel Elouise (Doyle) Staupers (1890 - 1989)

Born 27 Feb 1890 in Barbados, British West Indies

Died 30 Sep 1989 at age 99 in Washington, District of Columbia, United States

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Biography

Mabel (Doyle) Staupers is Notable.

Mabel (Doyle) Staupers was awarded the Spingarn Medal for her efforts as a pioneer in the field of nursing.

Mabel (Doyle) Staupers was born in Barbados.

Mabel Doyle Staupers was a pioneer in the American nursing profession who played a crucial role in the desegregation of the U.S. military's nursing corps in World War II. As the executive secretary of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses, she successfully fought for the inclusion of nurses of all races, and for the elimination of restrictive hiring quotas in the Army and Navy.^[1][2]

The daughter of Thomas Clarence and Pauline A. Doyle, she was born in Barbados, British West Indies in 1890, and immigrated to the U.S. with her mother in 1903; her father followed in 1904.^[3] She became a U.S. citizen in 1917, the same year she graduated from Freedmen's Hospital School of Nursing (now Howard University College of Nursing) in Washington, D.C.^[1] At that time Black women were barred from most nursing schools and professional associations, and from working as nurses in a number of states. The Army had a strict restrictive quota, and the Navy had a total ban on black nurses.^[2]

She also married in 1917, to Dr. James Max Keaton of Asheville, North Carolina and a graduate of Howard University College of Medicine; they were divorced by 1930.^[4] That year she was counted on the census in New York, living with her widowed father and her eleven-year-old sister, Dorothy Doyle.^[5] Dorothy is listed as her sister, Dorothy Harrison, in Mabel's 1989 Washington Post obituary,^[6] and in Mabel's online memorial, her sister is listed as Dr. Dorothy Harrison.^[7] Mabel remarried in 1931 to Fritz C. Staupers of New York City; he died in 1949. No children.^[2]

In 1920 she helped organize the Booker T. Washington Sanitarium, the first in-patient center in Harlem for black tuberculosis sufferers, and one of few city facilities at that time to employ black doctors.^[2]

She was elected executive secretary of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN) in 1934. Her well-organized and highly publicized campaign for desegregation of the nursing corps culminated in an appeal for support to Eleanor Roosevelt in November of 1944, which led both the Army and the Navy to change their policies the following year.^[1][2]

In 1961 she published an account of her battles on behalf of black nurses in No Time for Prejudice: A Story of the Integration of Negroes in the United States, (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1961).^[2]

She was 99 when she died in Washington, D.C. on 30 September 1989;^[8] she was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, in Bronx County, New York.^[7]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Wikipedia contributors, "Mabel Keaton Staupers," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mabel_Keaton_Staupers&oldid=1019876742 (accessed April 27, 2021).
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5} "Staupers, Mabel (1890–1989)," Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia, Encyclopedia.com. (April 15, 2021).
3. ↑ "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (Census record: accessed 11 September 2020), Mabel E Doyle in household of Thomas C Doyle, Manhattan Ward 12, New York, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 532, sheet 2A, family 32, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 1022; FHL microfilm 1,375,035.

   Thomas C Doyle Head Male 41 West Indies

   Pauline A Doyle Wife Female 41 West Indies

   Mabel E Doyle Daughter Female 20 West Indies

   Alfred F Robinson Lodger Male 35 West Indies

4. ↑ "North Carolina Deaths, 1931-1994," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FPNW-2M2 : 18 July 2017), Mabel Keaton in entry for Max Keaton, 22 Feb 1938; citing Asheville, Buncombe, North Carolina, fn 2006 cn 165, State Department of Archives and History, Raleigh; FHL microfilm 1,943,147.
5. ↑ View the image of either to see they are listed as one household, not two:
   • "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X4G1-XMJ : accessed 27 April 2021), Mable Keaton, Manhattan (Districts 1001-1249), New York, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 1226, sheet 29B, line 71, family 23, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 1578; FHL microfilm 2,341,313.
   • "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X4G1-XMN : accessed 27 April 2021), Thomas Doyle, Manhattan (Districts 1001-1249), New York, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 1226, sheet 29B, line 70, family 22, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 1578; FHL microfilm 2,341,313.

   Thomas Doyle Head Male 60 West Indies

   Mable Keaton Daughter Female 40 West Indies

   Dorothy Doyle Daughter Female 11 New York

6. ↑ "United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, 1980-2014," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKGV-MR1N : accessed 27 April 2021), Mrs Mabel Keaton Staupers, Washington DC, United States, 04 Oct 1989; from "Recent Newspaper Obituaries (1977 - Today)," database, GenealogyBank.com (http://www.genealogybank.com : 2014); citing Washington Post, The, born-digital text.

   Spouse and Children:

   Fritz C Staupers Husband Male

   James Latham Son Male

   Parents and Siblings

   Dorothy Harrison Sister Female

   Others on Record

   Max Keaton Unknown Male

7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1} Find a Grave, database and images: accessed 27 April 2021, memorial page for Mabel Keaton Doyle Staupers (27 Feb 1890–29 Nov 1989), Find A Grave: Memorial #176518352, citing Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, Bronx County, New York, USA; Maintained by Honoring Their Lives (contributor 47702523).
8. ↑ "United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (Record : accessed 11 September 2020), Mabel K Staupers, 30 Sep 1989; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).

See also:

• "New York State Census, 1905," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:SPN4-Z1J : 8 March 2021), Mabel L Doyle in household of Thomas C Doyle, Manhattan, A.D. 31, E.D. 45, New York, New York; citing p. 41, line 2, various county clerk offices, New York; FHL microfilm 1,433,113.

Thomas C Doyle Head Male 38y West Indies

Pauline A Doyle Wife Female 37y West Indies

Mabel L Doyle Daughter Female 15y West Indies

George Houston Boarder Male 30y West Indies

Norman Dodds Boarder Male 32y West Indies

Frederick Henry Cousin Male 35y West Indies

Ismay Hinds Boarder Female 28y West Indies

Julia Blackman Boarder Female 22y West Indies

Acknowledgments

• Thanks to Ebaugh-51 23:38, 11 September 2020 (UTC).