Verna Ward Hill MN, BSN, RN

Verna's life was never easy. Yet, through sheer determination, she managed to more than persevere. Verna graduated from Henry C. Yerger High School in 1947 and went on to graduate from the University of Washington School of Nursing in 1954, where she was the first African American to graduate from both the pre-nursing and nursing programs.

After completing her master's degree, she joined the Seattle-King County Department of Public Health, where her work included serving as the Maternal Child Health Coordinator and Crippled Children's Services Supervisor for the Department. Verna became interested in eliminating factors that negatively impact the health of pregnant women and children. She collected aggregate data indicating that providing high-quality healthcare to high-risk pregnant women reduced the number of babies born with low birth weight, birth defects, and infant mortality. Her data was shared with Senator Henry Jackson and researchers at the University of Washington. To this day, Verna’s research is a factor in determining prenatal infant care.

Verna served on the board of the Washington State Nurses Association, the King County Nurses Association, and the Mary Mahoney (African American) Professional Nurses Organization. She was one of two nurses among the 27 delegates from Washington at the Regional Conference and went on to represent Washington at the National White House Conference on Families Task In 1983. Verna was selected to be one of 25 professionals to represent the U.S. in the first collaborative sharing of healthcare information in the People's Republic of China. She was inducted into the Washington State Nurses Association Hall of Fame in 2010.

Verna was more than an ambitious professional. She excelled in her chosen profession, community activism and in raising her family. She carved out time to be with her children as both a Cub Scout and Girl Scout Leader. She served on the PTA and was an active member of her AKA Sorority and in the Seattle Rhinestones Club, an organization that develops educational and social/cultural skills for African American girls before introducing them into black society. She volunteered for the Red Cross disaster relief and was an ombudsman for the Seattle Special Olympics. Like her parents before her, Verna and her husband Nelson Hill, Sr., PhD emphasized her children's education. Even when working 12-hour shifts at night so she could be with her children during the day, any grade below a B was not an acceptable report card grade for her children.

Verna died peacefully in her sleep on January 28, 2026, one month before her 99th birthday, at Evergreen Court Assisted Living facility in Bellevue. She was a fifty five year resident of Redmond, Washington and was preceded in death by her husband Nelson Melvin Hill, Sr., PhD, and two sons, Nelson Melvin Hill II and Tracy Richmond Hill. She is survived by one daughter and one son, Sheryl Lynn Hill, and Stewart Allen Hill, one granddaughter, Courtney Marie Hill-Halela, and three great-grandchildren, Jackson Halela, Lake Eden Fry, and Jagger Ryan Fry. .

The family requests donations be made to Mary Mahoney Professional Nurses Organization in lieu of flowers. MMPNO P.O. Box 22003, Seattle, WA 98122-0003 or to Verna Hill Endowment Scholarship Fund

A Heavenly Birthday and Celebration of Life Service will be held for Verna Hill at Evergreen Washelli Funeral Home, 11111 Aurora Ave N, Seattle, WA 98133, on February 25, 2026, at 11 am.

Verna’s life is chronicled in the book, African American Registered Nurses in Seattle, by Lois Price Spratlen