Emily Cumming (Hammond) Walker (1904 - 2007)

Born 8 Jul 1904 in Beech Island, Aiken, South Carolina, United States

Ancestors

Wife of John Fletcher Wilson — married 9 Apr 1932 in Anne Arundel, Maryland, United States

Died 10 Jul 2007 at age 103 in Annapolis, Anne Arundel, Maryland, United States

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Biography

Emily (Hammond) Walker was a centenarian, living to age 103.

Emily (Hammond) Walker is Notable.

Emily was born in 1904. She was the daughter of Christopher Hammond and Mary Gwynn. She served the population of rural Anne Arundel County as a mobile physician for over 50 years. She died in Annapolis, MD on 10 July 2007. ^[1] In 2008, she was posthumously inducted into the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame ^[2].

Sources

1. ↑ Dr. Emily Walker Obituary. Baltimore Sun. Baltimore MD. 14 July 2007. See below.
2. ↑ Maryland Commission for Women, 2008. https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/educ/exhibits/womenshallfame/html/walker.html

["Dr. Emily Wilson: Legendary Medicine Woman"]

Dr. Emily Cumming Hammond Walker, who spent her medical career taking care of south county patients from 1929-1982, died July 10 at Spa Creek Medical Genesis HealthCare. She was 103.

Dr. Walker was born July 8, 1904, at Redcliffe Plantation, in Beech Island, S.C., built by her great-grandfather, James Henry Hammond, a former U.S. senator and governor of South Carolina at the time of the Civil War.

She attended Mount St. Agnes School in Baltimore, St. Genevieve's School in Asheville, N.C., and Goucher College. she graduated from the Medical college of Georgia in 1927, the only woman in her class and the second to graduate from the school.

After a year of internship at the Central Georgia Railroad Hospital in Savannah, Ga., she got a position in the clinic at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. In July 1929, she was given a chance to establish a practice as a country doctor in Anne Arundel County. Due to initial reluctance of people to be seen by a female doctor, her first patient was a dog who had been hit by a car, who made a full recovery.

In April 1932 she married John Fletcher Wilson and moved her medical office to the family farm in Lothian. In 1947 they purchased Obligation Farm, a historic property in Harwood which is still owned by the Wilson family.

There were only two paved roads in the south county at the time she began her practice, requiring her to make some calls on horseback. She charged $1 for an office visit and delivered babies at home for $15. She did not segregate patients by race, she accepted payment in the form of commodities (e.g. agricultural products) when patients could not pay cash, and she assisted African-American women in giving birth at home or at Johns Hopkins Hospital when their local hospital denied them use of their facility.

Although initially denied admission to the staff of the hospital in Annapolis and the county medical society, she became president of the society and chief of staff at the former Anne Arundel General Hospital in 1951. She was a pioneer in establishing clinics to treat syphilis and for pre-natal care. She is credited in diagnosing the first case of Rocky Mountain Fever in Maryland.

She was given a retirement party after 50 years of practice but continued working until 1982, retiring at the age of 78.

Mr. Wilson died in 1952. In 1974 she married A.T.(Tupper) Walker whom she had known since she was 17. He died in 1988.

(n.b. survivors omitted)

Visitation will be at Obligation Farm from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Friday. A memorial Mass will be offered at 10 a.m. Saturday at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Chuch, 101 Owensville road, West River. Burial will be in the family cemetery at Redcliffe Plantation.