| Olive Myrtle Henderson | |
| Birth Date: | 1877 |
| Birth Place: | Chicago |
| Death Date: | June 14, 1957 |
| Nationality: | African American |
| Occupation: | Dentist |
Olive Myrtle Henderson (1877-1957) was the second African American woman dentist in the city of Chicago and the first African American woman to graduate with a degree in dentistry from Northwestern University.[1]
Henderson was born in Chicago in 1877. As a young woman she was a patient of Ida Gray Nelson Rollins, the first African American female dentist in the United States.[2] Ida Gray Nelson Rollins had graduated from the University of Michigan in 1890.[3] It was Henderson's experience with Ida Gray Nelson Rollins that inspired her to become a dentist. Henderson graduated from Northwestern University in 1908. A little over a decade before Henderson graduated, Emma Ann Reynolds graduated as the first Black woman to receive a medical degree in 1895[4]
In 1911, Henderson married Thomas Sterling Officer. Officer had been a practicing physician in Chicago since 1906. Together they had a daughter named Mercedes. In 1912 Henderson established a private practice in Chicago's South Side. She retired in 1948 after 40 active years as a dentist. She was also an active member of the National Association of Colored Women and her church St. Thomas Episcopal.