Vivien Theodore Thomas LLD (1910 - 1985)

Born 29 Aug 1910 in Lake Providence, East Carroll, Louisiana, United States

Died 26 Nov 1985 at age 75 in Baltimore, Maryland, United States

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Biography

Vivien Thomas LLD is Notable.

Vivien Thomas was an American laboratory supervisor who developed a procedure used to treat cyanotic heart disease in the 1940s.

Vivien Theodore Thomas, son of William Thomas, was born in 1910. ^[1]

In 1920, 10-year-old Vivian was one of five children in the home of Willie and Mary Thomas. Although Vivian was born in Louisiana, by 1920 the family was living in a home owned by his father on Albion Street in Nashville, Tennessee. His father was a carpenter.^[2] Vivian would remain in the family home on Albion Street after graduating high school, and in 1930 he was 19 years old and working as a hospital orderly.^[3] This likely reflects his hiring by Dr Blalock at Vanderbilt University.

He died of pancreatic cancer in 1985 and is buried in Maryland National Memorial Park in Laurel, Maryland.^[4]

• began position as laboratory technician at Vanderbilt University after referral by his close friend, Charles Manlove. ^[5][6]
• notable surgical technician behind Alfred Blalock's breakthroughs in surgery - as a black man he was often omitted from Blalock's papers on surgical procedures but Blalock also defended him to colleagues and insisted on his presence during initial tetralogy surgeries for which he is remembered most. Thomas developed the procedure on animals and coached Blalock through the procedures on humans. It would have been illegal at the time for him to perform the procedures on humans due to his race. ^{[7] [8]}
• m. Clara
• 1976 honorary doctorate (in LAWs since there were restrictions on medical doctorates) awarded by Johns Hopkins ^[8]
• 1976 Faculty, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine ^[8]
• the Thomas-Blalock partnership was the subject of PBS's award-winning Partners of the Heart, 2003 ^[9] and the Emmy award-winning and Peabody award-winning HBO film Something the Lord Made, 2004. ^{[10] [11]}

Sources

1. ↑ "U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947"
   National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Draft Registration Cards for Tennessee, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 290
   Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 2238 #201236301 (accessed 10 January 2022)
   Name: Vivien Theodore Thomas; Gender: Male; Race: Negro (Black); Age: 30; Birth Date: 29 Aug 1910; Birth Place: New Iberia, La.; Residence Place: Nashville, Davidson, Tennessee; Registration Date: 16 Oct 1940; Registration Place: Nashville, Tennessee; Employer: Dr. Alfred Blalock, School Of Medicine, Vanderbilt Tenn; Height: 6 1"; Weight: 155; Complexion: Light Brown; Next of Kin: Mrs Clara Flandlers Thomas Wife.
2. ↑ 1920 Census: "1920 United States Federal Census"
   Year: 1920; Census Place: Nashville Ward 4, Davidson, Tennessee; Roll: T625_1733; Page: 6B; Enumeration District: 21
   Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry ca Record 6061 #12917116 (accessed 2 January 2023)
   Vivian Thomas (10), single daughter [sic], in household of Willie Thomas (44) in Nashville Ward 4, Davidson, Tennessee. Born in Louisiana.
3. ↑ 1930 Census: "1930 United States Federal Census"
   Year: 1930; Census Place: Nashville, Davidson, Tennessee; Page: 10B; Enumeration District: 0010; FHL microfilm: 2341973
   Ancestry ca Record 6224 #68140993 (accessed 2 January 2023)
   Vivian T Thomas (19), single son, Orderly, in household of William M Thomas (48) at 2007 Albion St., Nashville, Davidson, Tennessee, USA. Born in Louisiana.
4. ↑ "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVV6-4RRX : 26 July 2019), Vivien Theodore Thomas, 1985; Burial, Laurel, Prince George's, Maryland, United States of America, Maryland National Memorial Park; citing record ID 10372340, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.
5. ↑ Thomas, Vivien. Partners of the Heart : Vivien Thomas and His Work with Alfred Blalock : An Autobiography. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1985.
6. ↑ Mitchell, Jr., Reavis L., "Vivien T. Thomas 1910-1985" (2001). Nashville Conference on African American History and Culture. 58. Available from: https://digitalscholarship.tnstate.edu/conference-on-african-american-history-and-culture/58
7. ↑ "Vivien Thomas." Sawbones (Podcast). 18 May 2017. Maximum Fun. (Web) 21 May 2017.
8. ↑ ^{8.0 8.1 8.2} Wikipedia: Vivien Thomas, accessed 21 May 2017
9. ↑ Partners of the Heart. IMDb.com (Web). Retrieved 21 May 2017: During World War II and the era of staunch racial segregation, a Black carpenter's son named Vivien Thomas, who had a talent for surgery, along with a white surgeon named Dr. Alfred Blalock, who defied the medical establishment created a partnership that changed the course of cardiac surgery. With only a high school diploma, Thomas became a leading cardiac pioneer and educator of two generations of the United States' premiere heart surgeons. This moving documentary tells the story of Thomas and his relationship with Blalock, one that ushered in advances in surgery that are still in existence today.
10. ↑ Something the Lord Made. IMDb.com (Web). Retrieved 21 May 2017: A dramatization of the relationship between heart surgery pioneers Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas.
11. ↑ Wikipedia: Something the Lord Made, accessed 21 May 2017

• "United States Census, 1920", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MNG6-3V1 : 3 February 2021), Vivian Thomas in entry for Willie Thomas, 1920.
• "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:SPWD-DRZ : accessed 10 January 2022), Vivian T Thomas in household of William M Thomas, Nashville, Davidson, Tennessee, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 10, sheet 10B, line 97, family 165, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 2239; FHL microfilm 2,341,973.
• Vivien T. Thomas Collection, Collection ThoVT, 1930-1986 (inclusive) as found via search at medicalarchives.jhmi.edu

Research Notes

• There are many sources online that gives his birth place as New Iberia, Louisiana, but in his autobiography, he gives Lake Providence as his birth location. This is from page 3 of his autobiography, Partners of the Heart - "In 1903, William Maceo Thomas married Mary Eaton. They made their home in Lake Providence, a small town in the northeastern corner of Louisiana, not too far from the Mississippi River. It was there that their fourth child, Vivien Theodore Thomas, was born on August 19, 1910. The name given came about rather naturally; still neither of my parents ever denied my own version of the story that, since their oldest child was a girl and the next two children boys, the little girl would surely come as the fourth was already named. I told my story in their presence while still a child and in later years on numerous occasions, much to the amusement of my father. My mother, who was more reserved and serious, didn't find the tale humorous, but I was never reprimanded for its telling." -- Taneya Koonce