"We certainly have a variety of human beings in our class, haven't we?" Cherry commented
--From Cherry Ames, Student Nurse, p. 29
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L: Landgraf to Lovey
Landgraf, Henry
A tall, broad-shouldered man with a brown, weather-beaten face and blue eyes, Henry Landgraf is a "rough diamond," and looks like a modern-day pirate. He and Cherry compete on the high seas, as each tries to outmanuever the other to claim a vial of valuable ambergris hidden aboard the Julita cruise ship (Cruise Nurse).
Lane, Dr. David
Dr. David Lane is one of two pediatricians vying for the job of head resident of Spencer's new children's wing. Because he's dating the "flibbertigibbet" granddaughter of the doctor who will make the decision, he's considered a backslapper, but Cherry discovers that he's really spending his free time working with a newspaper reporter on a series of articles about diabetes (At Spencer).
Larsen, Bertha
A Minnesota farm girl, Bertha Larsen is fair, blue-eyed, and plump, and a good cook. She moves to New York with the other members of the Spencer Club, and defiantly paints the rented furniture blue in the girls' Greenwich Village apartment (Visiting Nurse). Bertha has a fiance named John back in Minnesota, but is in no rush to marry (Private Duty Nurse). After she meets Dr. Frank Jessup, she leaves New York City to nurse in Heartbreak Hollow, an isolated community in Kentucky. Dr. Jessup remarks: "Bertha has made great strides--that girl is an exceptionally competent nurse--and her farm background has given her an instinctive and sympathetic understanding of these people" (Mountaineer Nurse, pp. 44-45). Because she is the only nurse in the remote area, she cannot attend Vivian Warren's wedding, but sends her a beautiful hooked rug, made by one of the community matriarchs, as a wedding present. A few months later, when Bertha seriously injures her ankle, Cherry joins her in Kentucky to help out (Mountaineer Nurse).
Later, Bertha visits her family on their farm (Boarding School Nurse), then returns to work in New York City, as the nurse in charge of a children's hospital ward (Department Store Nurse); and then as a clinic nurse in a settlement house (Companion Nurse, The Mystery in the Doctor's Office). Cherry spends a few days visiting Bertha and meeting her parents and brothers at her family's Minnesota farm in Green Hills ("The Big Wind").
Lee, Mai
Mai Lee, a member of the Spencer Club, is Chinese-American; small, lovely, and ivory-skinned. Her family's peaceful ancestral village in China was destroyed by the Japanese, which spurs her to become an army nurse (Student Nurse). She also has family in San Francisco (Visiting Nurse), whom she occasionally visits (The Mystery in the Doctor's Office). She works as a private duty nurse (Night Supervisor, Country Doctor's Nurse) and as a pediatrician's nurse (Companion Nurse, "The Trouble with Sarah"). She appears intermittently throughout the series, but always as a minor character. Charlie especially admires her when she visits Hilton (Private Duty Nurse). In Mountaineer Nurse, she finds a buyer in New York for the rugs and handmade woolens that the Kentucky mountaineers make, helping alleviate the area's financial woes.
Lenk, Jacob
Jacob Lenk is a lonely-seeming man on his way to a new job when Cherry helps him after he is stricken with food poisoning at a restaurant in Switzerland. Then he abruptly vanishes, and when Cherry runs into him again, he seems oddly changed. Eventually, Cherry discovers that the real Lenk has been kidnapped and an impersonator has taken his place (Ski Nurse Mystery).
Longman, Jacqueline
A handsome teenager with curly, jet-black hair, cut as short as her brother Johnny's, Jacqueline is an asthmatic who delights in playing tricks and seeing how much she can get away with. At first she is impressed to learn that Cherry is also a twin, but when she sees a picture of Charlie (who doesn't look like Cherry), she becomes furious because she thinks Cherry has lied to her (Dude Ranch Nurse).
Longman, Johnny
Johnny Longman, Jacqueline's twin, is also an asthmatic. He is a bit more easygoing than Jackie, and not nearly as vindictive. He falls over a railing and breaks his ankle, and when Cherry treats the fracture, Jackie is grateful to Cherry and the twins confess to a series of misdeeds (Dude Ranch Nurse).