[Newspaper Clipping: 'Dr. May' lauded for help] Part: 3 of 4
2 clippings : ill. ; 10 x 19 cm. and 23 x 19 cm. on paper 28 x 22 cm.View a full description of this clipping.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
- - 4/-6755
Star-Telegram
Fort Worth, TexasFEB 1
51982
lay
Continued from Page 1
and books, an associationspokesman said.
"But, the money was a small part of it,"
Swink said. "The money I could have got-
ten somewhere else. The important thing
was she believed in me, and I respected
her."
"To have someone like that around,
quick to reassure you and encourage you,
is invaluable."
Dr. Owen agreed Sunday. She said all.
she wanted to do for 90 years was study
medicine, and her family doctor helped
her achieve that goal.
"There was always somebody there to
helpme over the hills that I didn't think I
could climb and across the streams I
didn't think I could make," she said at a
reception honoring her.
Dr. Owen, who was instrumental in es-
tablishing the Tarrant County Junior Col-
lege District, still serves as secretary of
the TCJC board of trustees. She was hon-
ored by the college's department of nurs-
ing as the first honorary member of the
TCJC chapter of Texas Nursing Students
Association.
Praised by Pam Pennington, president
of the chapter, as the woman "who has
allowed us to begin to fulfill all our
dreams," Dr. Owen responded character-
istically shy and humble.
"I was turned down for nursing school,
if you want to know it," she said, eyes
sparkling froma faceframedinsoftsilver
hair. "They wrote back a very frank letter
and said your grades are all right, but all
you know how to do is work and study,
and we want well-rounded people.
"They wanted me to have some accom-
plishments, and I didn't," she said. She
later became president of both the Tar-
rant County and the Texas medical associ-
ations and was honored in 1955 as Medical
Woman of the Year by the Woman's
American Medical Association. She also
was named by the Texas Societyof Pathol-
ogists in 1958 as "the member who has
contributed the most to medicine."
During Dr. Owen's tenure as the only
woman to serve as president of the Texas
Medical Association, the association's
Physicians Benevolent Fund was estab-
lished in 1960.
Organized tohelp needy doctors-par-
ticularly those who become disabled -
and, their families, the fund provides
about $100,000 in assistance eachyear and
has assets of more than $200,000.
Hundreds of physicians contribute reg-
ularly to the fund, started by a woman
who'said she walked from TCU to the oldI
audc
DR. MAY OWEN, R
... with well-wish
All Saints Hospital while she
lege in order to save the nickel
ride the trolley.
Dr. Owen said she loved do
cats, dogs, chicks and sometime
her family farm in Falls County
Texas and always wanted to s
cine.
She decided at age 9 that she
be a doctor.
At that time, there were cert
sions that people though
shouldn't go into, and medici
of them.
But May Owen was determ
She moved to Fort Worth
complete high school and atte
at TCU, working for Dr. Trur
tell, who operated the old Ter
tories associated with All Saii
Terrell gave her a job as ar
picking up and delivering spec
caring for the animals used in
After World WarI, Terrell l
money to attend Lewisvill
School in Kentucky, where s
some friends she sometimes vrdforhelp
ed from classes because the male student
were examining each other. Someone a1-
ways was kind enough to tell her what
they had learned, she said.
She graduated in 1921 and completed
postgraduate training at the Mayo Clinic.
In 1928 she returned to Terrell Laborator-
ies, where she became senior pathologist
and administrator of the school of medi-
cal technology.
Many of those she later helped through
medical school first met her while they
were premed students atTCU and needed
a part-time job. She put them to work in
the labs. She also helped train more than
100 laboratory technicians at TerrelL
Dr. Owen fondly recalled spending ma-
ny hours sitting on the pen fences at the
stockyards, counseling with veterinari-
ans about problems of cattle and sheep
when she worked at Terrell. She was hon-
ored for that work in 1963, when she was
made an honorary member of the Ameri-
can Veterinary Medicine Association.
She also is nationally credited with the
discovery that the talc powder once used
on surgical gloves was non-absorbable
r and was responsible for scar tissue, adhe-
sions and other problems after surgery.
Her discovery drastically changed surgi-
cal practices, and she was honored with
star-reeram an honorary doctor of science degree
IGHT from TCU in 1936.
iers Dr. Owen still reports for work every
day at either All Saints or Glenview Hospi-
s i tals, where she is on the staff. She also
was in co- travels to seven small towns within a 100-
el it took to mile radius of Fort Worth to satisfy the
. h rural hospitals' needs for a pathologist.
ctoring the She attends most staff meetings at All
es calves at Saints, Glenview and Cook Children's hos-
y mCentral pitals, and Rush said he didn't think she
study medi- has ever missed a Texas Medical Associa-
tion annual convention - "unless there
e wanted to was work that had to be done here."
tain profes-
it women
ne was one
ined.
in 1913 to
end college
man C. Ter-
rell Labora-
nts.
messenger,
cimens and
n lab work.
ent her the
le Medical
he has told
was exclude.
/
Upcoming Parts
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This clipping can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this part or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current part of this Clipping.
Ondrejas, Carolyn. [Newspaper Clipping: 'Dr. May' lauded for help], clipping, February 15, 1982; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth830156/m1/3/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Medical Association.