BIOGRAPHY
Mrs. Ophelia Northcross was born on March 9, 1926 in Mobile, Alabama to Albert and Grace Burnett. She attended Dunbar High School in Mobile and graduated in 1943 after completing the 11th grade.

At age seventeen, Mrs. Northcross applied to Tuskegee Institute and was accepted in the nursing program. In 1946, after receiving her nursing diploma from Tuskegee, Mrs. Northcross moved to Detroit because she learned through the nursing journals that the city had the highest paying nursing jobs in the state at the time. She applied to Children's Hospital of Detroit, but was not hired because she was African American. Instead, she began working with Dr. Walter Mack at Burton Mercy Hospital by day and at Mercy Whole Hospital-a Catholic-run cancer hospital-by night.

In Detroit, she reconnected with Dr. David Northcross, Jr., son of Drs. David and Daisy Northcross, and the founders of Mercy General Hospital. She had initially met him while they were both at Tuskegee. While they were dating, Mrs. Northcross soon became involved in the administration of Mercy General Hospital. Upon marrying Dr. David Northcross, Jr., she resigned from her position as operating room nurse at Grace Hospital and then began to work at Mercy General full-time, alternating between nursing and administrative duties.

During the early 1950's she pursued a degree in public health nursing from Wayne State University, but was unable to complete it because of the military duties of her husband and ailing health of her mother-in-law. She became responsible for the administration of Mercy General hospital and was instrumental in the relocation of the hospital from its location on Winder to Boston as the result of the construction of Interstate I-75.

In 1966, she left the hospital to pursue a career in occupational health. She worked at General Motors and at 19 different facilities for Chrysler before retiring in 1988.

Discusses her migration to Detroit and racial discrimination in finding employment in health care

I came here to live at Children’s Hospital…[In] 1946, October. And I was to go to Wayne State [University], live in the nursing home, and work at Children’s [Hospital]. And when I arrived, the lady said to me—the suitcase and all are going to the nursing home—she said, “We didn’t notice that Tuskegee,”—they mumbled around in the office—“was a Black school; we don’t hire Blacks here.”…And so she just left it at that. My mom had given me an address of my uncle’s girlfriend that had sent me a graduation present. They used to do that years ago when you couldn’t go in [a hotel] and they would say, “Now, you call this person,” because they would either give you a room or show you where it was. So, I walked. I’d asked the cab driver, “Where is this?”, on the way to Children’s [Hospital]. And he said, “I pass by there.” Coming from Grand Central Railroad Station, he came down Mack and said, “There’s the house.” Then it wasn’t that far to Children’s [Hospital]. I didn’t want to spend any more money, so I said, “Oh, I could walk that,” and I walked and sat on the suitcase. When I got to Mack Street there was a nun watering the [Mercy] Hall Hospital [lawn], a cancer hospital, and I had said, “A nun watering!” Because see, I came from a Catholic town, [where the nuns] have a maid, and I said, “Are you a [nun]? Is this a hospital or a house, or what is this, and why are you watering?” And I talked to her. I was sitting there resting. She said, “It’s a cancer hospital, and I own it.” So I said, “Well, I just left [the] Cancer Research [Center] in New York.” And she said, “What are you?” I said, “I’m a registered nurse.” I got my little things out and I had a temporary permit, because you had to be 21 [years old], and I showed it to her. I said, “I was supposed to work over there at Children’s, but they said they don’t have colored nurses.” She says, “Well, I hire colored nurses here. I said, “I’m walking over here to see if I can get me a place to stay at this house.”—[I was] right in front of it. And she said, “You could come back if you don’t get a place. I have a room here and you can work for me.” She’s a White nun…I said, “Okay.” So, I went over and rang the bell and a lady came to the door, the caretaker.