Leonie von Meusebach–Zesch, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetLeonie von Meusebach–Zesch
Pioneer female dentist
Date of Birth: 27-Nov-1882
Place of Birth: Mason County, Texas, United States
Date of Death: 07-Jul-1944
Profession: dentist
Nationality: United States
Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius 
About Leonie von Meusebach–Zesch
- Leonie von Meusebach–Zesch (November 27, 1882 – July 7, 1944) was an American early 20th-century pioneer female dentist who practiced in Texas, Alaska, Arizona and California.
- She is also known as Leonie von Zesch or Leonie Zesch.
- She was inducted into the Alaska Women's Hall of Fame in 2012. She was a dental surgeon with the United States Army following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
- Her mother worked with the American Red Cross to document survivors after the disaster.
- After recovery, she provided onboard dental services to members of both the United States Pacific Fleet and the United States Atlantic Fleet.
- During the Great Depression, Meusebach–Zesch provided dental care to enrollees and officers with the Civilian Conservation Corps, and later to inmates at the California Institute for Women.
- For four years, she practiced in her home state of Texas, with an office in Mason.
- Three years of her dental career were spent in Arizona, where her patients included people from the Hopi and Navajo populations.
- To accommodate patients who could not travel to her practice in Winslow, Arizona, she hooked her equipment to the back of her Model T automobile and held mobile dental clinics around the state. For fifteen years, Meusebach–Zesch practiced in the Territory of Alaska, with offices at varying times in Cordova, Nome and Anchorage.
- To serve remote Inuit villages, she traveled by airplane to islands in the Bering Sea.
- She survived an airplane crash on her way to Point Barrow and tried to walk to Kotzebue before being transported by an Inuit.
- Throughout Alaska's interior, she traveled by dog sled to hold mobile dental clinics for both Inuit and non-indigenous patients.
- She crawled on her abdomen across thin ice to save sled dogs from drowning.
- She and her assistant were stranded on one occasion, and were rescued by champion dog racer Leonhard Seppala.
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