Daisy Hill Northcross

Northcross taught elocution and vocal music as a young woman. She and her husband ran a sanitarium in Alabama.^[2] They moved from Montgomery to Detroit in 1916, as part of the Great Migration.^[6][7] The following year opened the city's first Black-owned and operated hospital, Detroit Mercy General Hospital, slightly before the establishment of the larger Dunbar Hospital.^[8][9] They also ran a drugstore, a hotel,^[10] and a nurses' training program.^[11]

Daisy Northcross took over the hospital's management when her husband was fatally stabbed by a tenant in 1933.^[12] She was assisted by other medically trained members of her family, including her nephew Remus G. Robinson,^[13] her son David, and his wife. She was also active in church and club activities in Detroit,^[14][15][16] and in the YWCA.^[1][17] She judged a Healthiest Baby Contest in 1954.^[18]

Daisy Hill married a fellow Alabama-born doctor, David Caneen Northcross, in 1909.^[2] They had three children, Gloria,^[19][20] David, and Wilson. Their son David Jr. (1917–2009) also became a physician in Detroit, and his wife Ophelia Burnett Northcross (1926–2019) was a nurse.^[21][22] Daisy Hill Northcross died in 1956, aged 75 years, after abdominal surgery in Detroit.^[11][23]