One Local Family Seems to Flock to the Medical Profession

              One Local Family Seems to Flock to the Medical Profession
By EVANGELINE TOLLESON
Journal Medical Writer
A family of Byrds makes up a flock
of doctors.
From one nest built by Dr. Edwin
Henry Byrd Sr. and his wife Elaine
— a former nurse — came three
sons, all of whom have earned the
title of doctor. All sons now practice
in Shreveport and their father lives
here part time.
And the only daughter in the Byrd
family married a pathologist who is
a resident at LSU Medical Center
here. """ "
But Byrd Sr. said he never tried to
influence his own sons to become
doctors. It just happened, and now
there is Dr. Edwin Henry Byrd Jr.,
gynecologist and obstetrician;
Charles "Ronny" Byrd, general
surgery; and William A. Byrd, an
intern at I.SU Medical Center. All
three have gone through the LSU
Medical Center program. Their
father recently sold his hospital —
Byrd Memorial — in Leesville and
also moved to Shreveport.
This migration to medicine all
started with Dr. Edward Jones Byrd
— father of Edwin Henry Sr. and
grandfather of the three Byrd sons.
He graduated from medical school in
1902. His son Edwin had wanted to be
a writer, but his father did not like
his chosen field.
"I was going to study journalism,
but he refused to support me. He told
me I'd end up being a drunken cub
reporter," Byrd Sr. said during a
recent family meeting, which is un-usual
because it's difficult to get all
the Byrd doctors together.
"I was the only son and he wanted
me to follow in his footsteps," he
remembered. "He thought there was
so much dignity in being a doctor. He
always said it's the greatest pro-fession
there is next to the ministry."
The sons agree that although Dad
may not have tried to influence their
career decisions, he did have a lot of
effect on their choices. The younger
Byrds used to go on rounds with their
father and worked at Byrd Memorial
Hospital while in high school.
Making the decision took a while
for the eldest son Edwin Jr., who was
a construction and filling station
worker and came down with a case
of malaria after working a night shift
in a sawmill. He decided working
with sick people would be a lot safer
than working in a sawmill.
Perhaps because he was the oldest
son, Edwin Jr. sometimes was his
father's "guinea pig." He was the
first of three children which the
father delivered in the family and
when he was 3 years old, "Dad" tried
out antibiotics x>n him.
"I've wanted to be a doctor for as
long as I can remember," said Ron-ny,
the middle child. "At one time I
wanted to be an astronomical engi-neer,
but that was because I heard a
word nobody else knew."
The elder Byrd's favorite story
about Ronny is the time his young
son had just been given a puppy and
he took it around on house calls. One
woman had just had stomach
surgery and Ronny pitched the dog
at the woman's abdomen. This was
one bedside manner this Dr. Byrd
tries to forget about.
Bill, the youngest son, showed the
talent of empathy early on in his
medical career. While making
rounds with his father, the youth saw
a woman patient who was sobbing
because of pain. "If you quit crying,
I'll buy you a toy," Bill said.
When the five doctors — including
the son-in-law — get together, their
conversation is often "shop talk,"
they agreed. The doctors trade
stories about patients (without men-tioning
names) — particularly the
amusing parts of medicine.
Old-timers at the medical center
remember the two older brothers
and say they are just alike, said Bill,
the intern. The family agreed on
several bedside manners, particular-ly
that the doctor must get the con-fidence
of his patients. The brothers
learned this from Dad, they said.
Edwin Sr., who long ago wanted to
become a reporter, reflected back on
his own father's advice. "You learn
more by listening than you do by
talking," said the first Byrd doctor
who has since died. He was also a
state senator in Arkansas. Listening
to the patient is a number one rule in
all the Byrd households.
Having the same name can cause
mixups, the family agreed. It's not
unusual for patients to call the wrong
brother for medical advice.
This Byrd family isn't the only set
of doctors in town, as Edwin Jr.
learned shortly after he began his
practice as an obstetrician.
"One night this guy called about 3
a.m. and said, 'My old cow is in
labor,' " Edwin said. The man de-scribed
aU the normal symptoms for
labor and said contractions were five
minutes apart.
"We better get rolling and get her
to the hospital," Edwin told the man.
"That's the trouble — I can't get that
ole cow to move," the man replied.
Now Edwin, who had not been
practicing a long and did not know
the patients of the other doctors in
his group very well, might have
thought it was a little unusual for a
man to call his pregnant wife a cow.
But he did not really start thinking
Men in the Byrd family all flocked to the field of medicine.
Pictured are Dr. Edwin Henry Byrd Sr. (seated) and his sons
(standing left to right) Dr. Edwin Henry Byrd Jr., Dr.
Charles "Ronny" Byrd and Dr. William A. Bvrd. (Journal
Photo by John Graber)
anything was wrong about the call
until the man said, "She just won't
move — I even kicked her and all she
wants to do is eat hay."
Byrd, now wide awake, asked the
caller who he was trying to call.
"Why, the vet," he replied. "Aren't
you Dr. Byrd the vet?"