William White's Obituary
William Guerin White, MD, 94, died June 7 at the Allen Morgan Health Center. The family will recieve friends from 2:30 until service time at 3:30 Thursday, June 10 at Shady Grove Presbyterian Church. The Interment will be in Memorial Park Cemetery. He was born December 13, 1915 in Cameron, West Virginia to William and Lula Ingalls White. He grew up in Norfolk, Virginia, where he graduated from Maury High School in 1932. He earned a bachelor of science degree from Davidson College in 1936 and graduated from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in 1940. His internship was at Gorgas Hospital in Panama. He served in the military as a captain and diagnostician for the U.S. Public Health Service, spending a year in Mexico City and visiting every Coast Guard station on the Great Lakes taking chest X-rays with a portable unit. His specialty was pulmonary medicine. In 1945, the Tennessee legislature authorized the establishment of regional hospitals for tuberculosis treatment. Dr. White was invited to participate in the development of this state-wide system and was instrumental in the creation of the West Tennessee Chest Disease Hospital. He married Billie Frances Barton in 1951. They were charter members of Shady Grove Presbyterian Church, where he served as an elder and sang in the choir for more than 40 years. In 1975, The West Tennessee Chest Disease Hospital was turned over to the University of Tennessee and he joined the staff of the teaching hospital and Shelby County Health Department, where he served dual appointments. He retired in 1986 Dr. White enjoyed tennis, boating and music and had learned to play a variety of instruments and participated in the Memphis chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society. One of his greatest joys was spending summers at his family residence in Larrabee, Maine. He was preceded in death by his son, William Guerin White, Jr. and is survived by his wife Billie, his daughter Gloria White and her husband Ed Rainey of Memphis, and his granddaughter Jessica White of Baytown, Texas. Memorials may be sent to Shady Grove Presbyterian Church.
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