Medical Pioneer, Author. She received world-wide recognition for her unconventional treatment of polio or infantile paralysis, which led to modern-day physical therapy. Though she had no formal nursing training, she volunteered and was accepted as a nurse during World War I in the Australian Army Nursing Service as there was a shortage of trained registered nurses. She served for approximately four years, bringing the wounded military back to Australia by ship. By 1917 she was promoted to a Sister, a title given to a registered nurse. Born the daughter of an Irish immigrant, she lived her childhood on a farm in the remote Australian bush and received little formal education. She was a keen reader and studied anatomy and physiology on her own. With little medical care available in the bush, she traveled on horseback, caring to the sick with basic first aid. With the help of a physician, she started to apply moist heat to polio patients' limbs with much success. In 1927 she patented the Sylvia stretcher, which is used in ambulances. Later, she used a motorcycle to make her nursing rounds in the bush country. In 1932 she established a backyard clinic at Townsville to treat long-term poliomyelitis victims and cerebral palsy patients with hot baths with regular passive exercise to increase mobility. This was a very nonconventional method of medical treatment. Eventually, she was given a ward in Brisbane General Hospital. In 1940 she traveled to the United States with her treatment and gave lectures to physicians and published textbooks on the subject. In 1942, the Sister Kenny Institute in Minneapolis opened as the Kenny method had earned wide acclaim from her American medical colleagues at the Mayo Clinic. The bush nurse received several honorary doctorate degrees. In Gallup's 1951 poll, she ranked higher as the woman Americans most admired in the world than former United States First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who had held the position from 1947 to 1961, except for 1951. She retired in 1951 as the newly developed polio vaccine started to eradicate the disease and her popularity faded. She published medical textbooks: "Infantile Paralysis and Cerebral Diplegia: Methods Used for the Restoration of Function" in 1937, "The Treatment of Infantile Paralysis in the Acute Stage" in 1941, and "The Kenny Concept of Infantile Paralysis and Its Treatment", which was cowritten with John F. Pohl in 1943. "My Battle and Victory: History of the Discovery of Poliomyelitis as a Systemic Disease" was published posthumously in 1955. Adapted from Martha Ostenso's 1943 biography of Kenny, "And They Shall Walk," her fight to gain the medical community's acceptance for her method of treatment was the subject of the 1946 film "Sister Kenny". She died of complications from Parkinson's disease and was buried beside her mother in Nobby cemetery. A small museum in Nobby holds artifacts and documents relating to her life.

Memorials: Queensland Australian Army Nursing Service Roll of Honour, Toowoomba Sister Kenny .Memorial