Madeleine Leininger was born in Sutton, Nebraska. In 1948, she received her
diploma in nursing from St. Anthony’s School of Nursing in Denver, Colorado.
In 1950, she earned a B.S. from St. Scholastica (Benedictine College) in Atchison,
Kansas, and in 1954 earned an M.S. in psychiatric and mental health nursing
from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. In 1965, she
was awarded a Ph.D. in cultural and social anthropology from the University
of Washington, Seattle (Tomey and Alligood, 2001).