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Bessie Blount Griffin was born on 24 November, 1914 in Hickory, Virginia, USA. Discover Bessie Blount Griffin's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Learn How rich is She in this year and how She spends money? Also learn how She earned most of networth at the age of 95 years old?

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Bessie Blount Griffin Height, Weight & Measurements

At 95 years old, Bessie Blount Griffin height not available right now. We will update Bessie Blount Griffin's Height, weight, Body Measurements, Eye Color, Hair Color, Shoe & Dress size soon as possible.

Dating & Relationship status

She is currently single. She is not dating anyone. We don't have much information about She's past relationship and any previous engaged. According to our Database, She has no children.

Bessie Blount Griffin Net Worth

Her net worth has been growing significantly in 2022-2023. So, how much is Bessie Blount Griffin worth at the age of 95 years old? Bessie Blount Griffin’s income source is mostly from being a successful . She is from Virginia. We have estimated Bessie Blount Griffin's net worth , money, salary, income, and assets.

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Timeline

Blount died at the age of 95 on December 30, 2009, at her home in Newfield, New Jersey.

In 2008, Bessie Griffin returned home to Hickory to memorialize the significance of her primary school, which had been burned to the ground in 1932. No records of the school system were found before 1913. She intended to build a museum and library on the grounds in memory of those who had studied there in the decades past. Unfortunately, her project was never completed as Griffin died the following year.

In 2008 she undertook but was unable to complete one more project: founding a museum on the grounds of her old Virginia schoolhouse which had burned down, to commemorate the contributions of those who had studied there.

Blount was honored in 1992 by The American Academy of Physical Therapy, an African American focused physical therapy organization.

In 1969, Blount embarked on a second career, in law enforcement, pursuing forensic science research for police departments in New Jersey and Virginia. During her previous patient therapy, while demonstrating ambidextrous functions, or writing with teeth or feet, she had begun to see a correlation between physical health and writing characteristics. From her observations, she saw how a person's handwriting reflected their state of health. This discovery inspired her to publish a technical paper on "medical graphology." After the publication of the paper, Blount's career in forensics quickly grew. By the late 1960s she was assisting police departments in Norfolk, VA and Vineland, New Jersey, and later joined the Portsmouth, Virginia police department as a chief examiner until 1972, when the state of Virginia centralized its document examination. In 1977, the Metropolitan Police (Scotland Yard) Forensic Science Laboratory invited Blount to join them in London for advanced studies in graphology. At sixty-three years old, she was the first Black woman to be accepted into the advanced studies at the Document Division of Scotland Yard. On returning, Blount started her own forensic science consulting business and ran it for twenty-years, using her forensic experience to examine documents and slave papers from the pre-civil war. Blount operated that business until the age of 83. Her verification of authenticity was also used on Native American treaties with the United States.

Blount made numerous attempts to interest the VA in her inventions but they declined, despite the devices' evident beneficial impact. To promote the inventions, she appeared on the WCAU Philadelphia television show The Big Idea in 1953. Blount was the first African-American woman to be on the show. No transcript is available, but it is reported she repeated that she had proved "A black woman can invent something for the benefit of humankind."

In 1951, Blount married Thomas Griffin. They had one son, Philip.

While working at the Bronx Hospital in New York, at thirty-seven years old, Blount invented an electric self-feeding apparatus for amputees. She used plastic, boiling water to mold the material, a file, ice pick, hammer, and some dishes to create a prototype of her invention. The device had a tube to transport individual bites of food to the patient's mouth. The patients would bite down on the tube and then the next portion of food would dispense to the mouthpiece from the attached machine. This allowed patients to control how much they’d want to eat without assistance from others. A part of the device was patented in 1948. The American Veterans Administration (VA) declined Blount's invention, so in 1952 she licensed it freely to the French government. She remarked in an interview with the Afro-American that her accomplishment showed that "a colored woman can invent something for the benefit of humankind" She also 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. During her career, Blount was a physical therapist to Thomas Edison's son, Theodore Miller Edison. Blount and Edison became close friends. During that time she invented the emesis basin. The basin was a kidney-shaped disposable cardboard dish made out of flour, water, and newspaper that was baked until the material was hard. Once again, the U.S. Veterans Affairs (VA) showed no interest in Blount's invention. She sold the rights to her invention to a company in Belgium. Her design is still used today in Belgian hospitals. Modern, slimmer devices have been invented since 1948, but Blount is remembered for pioneering the first electric device for feeding amputees.

Bessie Virginia Blount, also known as Bessie Blount Griffin, (November 24, 1914 – December 30, 2009) was a writer, nurse, physical therapist, inventor and forensic scientist.

Bessie Blount Griffin was born on November 24, 1914, to George Woodard and Mary Elizabeth. A native of Virginia, Blount was born in the Hickory, Virginia community, in Princess Anne County (now known as the city of Chesapeake).