An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church

Delaney Sisters. Annie Elizabeth

(Bessie) (1891-1995), and Sarah Louise (Sadie) Delaney (1889-1999), were the daughters of Henry Beard Delaney and Nancy Logan Delaney. Henry Delaney was a Suffragan Bishop of North Carolina and the second African American bishop in the Episcopal Church. Annie and Sarah and their siblings were raised on the campus of St. Augustine's College, Raleigh, North Carolina. In 1919 they moved to Harlem in New York City where they continued their education. Both of them received degrees from Columbia University. Bessie Delaney became the second African American female dentist in the state of New York, and Sadie Delaney became the first African American home economics teacher in New York City. The Delaney sisters lived very private lives until 1993 when they published Having Our Say: The Delaney Sisters' First Hundred Years, which was based on recollections and anecdotes of their long lives. Later the book was made into a Broadway play. In 1994 they published The Delaney Sisters' Book of Everyday Wisdom. Bessie Delaney died in Mt. Vernon, New York. See Delaney, Henry Beard.

Glossary definitions provided courtesy of Church Publishing Incorporated, New York, NY,(All Rights reserved) from “An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church, A User Friendly Reference for Episcopalians,” Don S. Armentrout and Robert Boak Slocum, editors.