Eliza Johnson Kirby was known for her caring and compassion. She was devoted to her church, her family and volunteered her time for many charitable causes.

She was born in Millen, Georgia on August 5, 1933 as the third of four children of Ellis and Daisy Johnson.

Eliza grew up rural Wadley, Georgia and later attended nursing school at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. After graduation in 1954, she remained at Grady Hospital to work in obstetrics until 1958. Even early in her career, she served as a role model for many student nurses. After leaving Grady Hospital, she worked as a public health nurse in Fulton County, Georgia and then as a staff nurse for the Veterans Administration Hospital in Brooklyn, New York. She later earned a Bachelor of Science in Health Care Administration from Ottawa University.

In 1964 she married Daniel Kirby, Sr., moved to Newark, New Jersey and went to work for the United Hospitals Medical Center, where she became operating room nursing supervisor. She found her true professional calling after receiving advanced training in anesthesia and earning designation as a certified registered nurse anesthetist. She displayed a true joy in helping her patients find comfort from pain. Of particular joy was the chance to provide relief from pain to thousands of mothers during labor and childbirth. On countless occasions she would be stopped in the store by former patients who remembered her as having provided special care.

Mrs. Kirby continued to serve as a nurse anesthetist and clinical instructor in the anesthesia school until November 1978 when she moved to Orlando with her family. For the next 19 years of her career she worked for the Orlando Regional Healthcare System where she was a nurse anesthetist at the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children & Women and the Orlando Regional Medical Center. She retired as a nurse anesthetist 1997.

Throughout her life, Eliza Kirby sought out opportunities to work with young people. In addition to active involvement as a parent volunteer at her children's schools, she worked to positively impact the lives of many young children. During the early 1980's she could be found in the concession stand at West Orange High School football games serving up sodas and hot dogs with the other band parents. On Sunday mornings she could usually be found teaching a Sunday School class of eighth graders. Every spring she would help younger children learn readings and bible verses for her church's Easter program. She also worked with other local nurses to organize fundraisers for nursing student scholarships, sex education workshops for teens, and free health screening programs. Eliza volunteered to drive cancer patients to chemotherapy treatments and delivered meals to homebound senior citizens. She also promoted good health through by writing a number of published articles on topics such as self-breast examinations and the control of high blood pressure. As a proponent of a healthy lifestyle, she was a co-founder of medical weight loss centers in 1995 and 2000.

She received recognition from fellow nurses as an example of the profession at its best. Continuing her strong ties to her nursing school, she serves as national president of Grady Graduate Nurses Alumnae from 1989 - 1997 and was honored by that group with its highest award, the Ludie Andrews Award. A former president of Central Florida Black Nurses Association, she was also a member of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists and listed in Who's Who in American Nursing.

Eliza Kirby made it her life's work to provide comfort to others, help them through difficult times, and to teach them the importance of a strong spiritual foundation.