Hickory Virginia (November 24, 1914 – December 30, 2009) 95 Yrs

Bessie Virginia Blount Griffin, better known as Bessie Blount, was an African American writer, nurse, physical therapist, inventor and forensic scientist. Blount was known for her groundbreaking work in assistive technologies and forensic sciences. While working at the Bronx Hospital in New York, at thirty-seven years old, Blount invented an electric self-feeding apparatus for amputees. She devised a neck frame for an injured or ill patient, that holds a bowl or cup close to their face as a “portable receptacle support. and in April 1951, Blount was granted U.S. patent 2,550,554. Blount’s invention is recognized as one of the earliest electric assistive eating devices, and its design philosophy — allowing patients to control the pace of their own meals — laid groundwork for modern assistive feeding technologies. She remarked in an interview with the African-American that her accomplishment showed that “a black woman can invent something for the benefit of humankind.“.