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Gladys Smithwick

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Gladys Smithwick
Yearbook photo of a young white woman with dark hair and glasses
Gladys Smithwick, from a 1924 yearbook
Born
Laura Gladys Smithwick

May 28, 1898
Warren County, North Carolina
DiedDecember 28, 1964
Charlotte, North Carolina
Occupation(s)Physician, Christian missionary

Laura Gladys Smithwick (May 28, 1898 – December 28, 1964) was an American physician. She served as a Presbyterian medical missionary in China and the Belgian Congo.

Early life

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Smithwick was born in Warren County, North Carolina, one of the eight children of James Walter Smithwick and Laura S. Fort Smithwick. She completed a bachelor's degree at Oxford College in North Carolina in 1919.[1] She earned a medical degree the Medical College of Virginia in 1925, where she was a member of the Alpha Epsilon Iota professional society.[2] She later earned a master's degree in public health at Tulane University,[3] and studied anesthesiology at Massachusetts Memorial Hospital in Boston.[4]

Career

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After medical school, Smithwick worked at the Catawba Sanatorium in Virginia,[5] and the Rhode Island State Sanatorium.[6] She spent much of her career as a medical missionary with the American Southern Presbyterian Mission. She was posted in China from 1929 to 1935, where she was co-director of a women's hospital at Suzhou.[7][4] She was an anesthesiologist[4][8] and an active clubwoman in Lexington, Kentucky, in the 1930s and 1940s.[9][10][11]

Smithwick hoped to return to China after World War II;[8][12] instead, she studied French in Belgium, and worked at a leprosarium[13] in the Kasai Province of the Belgian Congo, from 1949 to 1963.[14][15]

On furloughs in the United States, she spoke about her work at Presbyterian churches.[16][17][18]

Personal life

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Smithwick died in 1964, aged 66 years, at a hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina.[13][14][19] There is a file of her letters in the Presbyterian Historical Society archives.[20]

References

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  1. ^ "Commencement Exercises of Oxford College". Oxford Public Ledger. 1919-06-06. p. 5. Retrieved 2021-03-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ Medical College of Virginia (1924). X-ray. Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries. Medical College of Virginia.
  3. ^ "Missionary to Speak". The Greenville News. 1955-06-10. p. 13. Retrieved 2021-03-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ a b c Hoagland, Marjorie (1941-08-30). "Former Missionary Says China, With U.S. Aid, Will Beat Japs". The Lexington Herald. p. 2. Retrieved 2021-03-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ Health, Virginia Dept of (1925). Biennial Report. Center for Health Statistics, Virginia Department of Health.
  6. ^ Rhode Island State Sanatorium (1930). Annual Report. p. 6.
  7. ^ "Americans Fight Oriental Fever Scourge in China". Suffolk News-Herald. March 7, 1935. p. 1. Retrieved March 26, 2021 – via Virginia Chronicle.
  8. ^ a b "Dr. Smithwick Takes Medical Post in China". The Lexington Herald. 1948-04-21. p. 1. Retrieved 2021-03-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ "Dr. Smithwick Will Entertain at Tea Today". The Lexington Herald. 1939-03-05. p. 19. Retrieved 2021-03-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "Dr. Smithwick Gives Tea for Committee". The Lexington Herald. 1941-09-13. p. 5. Retrieved 2021-03-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ "Dr. Smithwick, Mrs. Cantrill to Give Book Reviews". The Lexington Herald. 1945-03-18. p. 17. Retrieved 2021-03-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "Dr. Gladys Smithwick's Assignment is Delayed". The Lexington Herald. 1948-05-06. p. 22. Retrieved 2021-03-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ a b "Dr. Gladys Smithwick, Former Missionary, Dies". The Charlotte Observer. 1964-12-29. p. 4. Retrieved 2021-03-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ a b "Dr. Gladys Smithwick Dies at Charlotte". Warren Record. p. 1. Retrieved March 26, 2021 – via DigitalNC.
  15. ^ Staff, United States Department of State Cultural Planning and Coordination (1959). International Educational Exchange and Related Exchange-of-persons Activities: British Cameroons, Cameroun, French Equatorial Africa, Belgian Congo, and Angola. p. 44.
  16. ^ "Shiloh, Mebane Presb". The Daily Times-News. 1960-01-29. p. 12. Retrieved 2021-03-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ Rice, Teek (1964-10-18). "Medical Missionary Tells of Her Experiences in the Congo". Beckley Post-Herald The Raleigh Register. p. 12. Retrieved 2021-03-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ "Dr. Smithwick Here". The Advocate-Messenger. 1953-02-04. p. 3. Retrieved 2021-03-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ "Dr. Laura Smithwick's Will Probated in County Court". The Lexington Herald. 1965-02-06. p. 11. Retrieved 2021-03-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ "Guide to the Missionary Correspondence Department Letters". Presbyterian Historical Society. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
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