Biographical Sketch of Dr. Logan County McVay

August 18, 1875 – January 15 1966

 

Logan County McVay was born in Paris, Logan County, Arkansas on August 18, 1875 the first born child to the farming family of Thomas David and Mary Elizabeth Parker McVay. He was soon joined by sisters Mattie and Maggie. In the 1880 U. S. Census the family was listed as living in Short Mountain, Logan County.

Logan came to Marion, Crittenden County in the fall of 1899 as a school teacher and instructed when Marion had its school in a small frame building on the Mound City Road. He began the study of medicine a short time later and in 1904 was graduated from the Memphis Medical College where he was vice president (treasurer) of his class. On February 21, 1906 he married Prairie Grove resident May Bell Adams in Washington County. They became the parents of two daughters, Carlie and May Adams. In the 1906 American Medical Directory he was practicing medicine in Marion. He continued the practice of medicine in Marion the remainder of his life, retiring at the age of 90 after falling and breaking his hip. For many years he was the only doctor in Marion.

The headline of the October 29, 1931 Kingsport Tennessee Times reads: “5 Cotton Pickers Killed, 20 Others Injured In Crash”. “Doctor L. C. McVay of Marion and Memphis set up a temporary hospital in a vacant store for the treatment of the injured.”1 Two days later an article in the Memphis Commercial Appeal reads in part; “All of the injured from the trailer wreck were taken first to his office and to a temporary dressing station in an adjoining barber shop. Mrs. McVay counted 45 persons who received first aid treatment, although the names of only 33 were secured. Dr. L. C. McVay, the physician of Memphis and Marion, who is one of the heroes of the Marion truck disaster, is becoming accustomed to early hours. Thursday he was aroused at 4 a.m. and toiled for hours assisted by his wife and daughters, in giving first aid treatment to the 33 persons injured when the trailer tore away from the truck and overturned in a ditch.

Yesterday morning he was awakened again at 4, but the call did not have such serous consequences. Charlie Ford of Helena lost control of his car on the outskirts of Marion and crashed into a telephone pole, sustaining painful cuts on the face. He was able to continue homeward after his wounds were dressed by Dr. McVay.”2

Dr. McVay was a charter member of the Marion Rotary Club and the Marion Masonic Lodge. During World War I he served as a member of the Crittenden County Draft Board and the time of his death he also was a member of the board of commissioners of Drainage District Six of Crittenden County. He also served on the Marion School Board and was one of two doctors who started the Crittenden Memorial Hospital. He liked to say he practiced medicine 126 years since he practiced 63 years in each of two states, Arkansas and Tennessee.

Dr. McVay died January 15, 1966 and is buried in Crittenden Memorial Park.

 

1      Kingsport Times (Kingsport, Tennessee) 29 Oct 1931, Page 1

 2     The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tennessee) 31 Oct 1931, Page 11

John T. Mitchell, BBA                     July 23, 2022