Dr.Thomas Lee Haney

BACK TO BIOGRAPHIES INDEX PAGE
HOME PAGE

haney_thomas.jpg (13750 bytes)

medicalbag.jpg (1806 bytes)

DR. THOMAS LEE HANEY, BELOVED AND PROMINENT FLAT RIVER PHYSICIAN.

Lead Belt News, July 26, 1929.

           DR. T. L. HANEY DIED SUDDENLY

Dr. Thomas Lee Haney, who had been practicing his profession in Flat River for the past twenty-five years, died at his home in Flat River Monday morning, July 22, 1929, at nine forty-five o'clock, of acute dilation of the heart caused by high blood pressure. He had been confined to his bed about one week, having been attacked with the illness which caused his death on the afternoon of Monday, July 15, but had suffered from high blood pressure for some time prior to that date. On the day he became ill he had mowed the lawn at his home, following which he complained of feeling badly. His condition became such that he was removed to Bonne Terre Hospital Wednesday, July 17, but he requested that he be brought to his home Sunday, which request was complied with. He was born July 25, 1870, and would have been fifty-nine years of age had he lived until Thursday of this week, which was the date of his funeral.

Funeral services were conducted at the Flat River Christian church, of which he was a member, Thursday afternoon, July 25th, at two o'clock, with Rev. E. B. Hensley, his pastor, officiating. Interment was in the Libertyville Cemetery, with funeral rites of the Masonic order at the grave side. Flat River business houses closed during the hour of the funeral as a mark of respect, and the large gathering of friends who assembled for the services was a splendid testimonial of the high regard in which he was held throughout his home city and county.

Active pallbearers were chosen from men of his own profession with one exception, Dr. Edward Griffin, a dentist. They were Drs. N. M. Fuller, Carl Powell, of St. Louis, R. Appleberry, W. J. Bryan, and E. C. Rohbach, Honorary pallbearers were H. W. Buckley, C. R. Pratt, R. V. Coffman, O. Lee Munger, W. H. Comins, E. A. Stock and H. C. Claudy.

Thomas Lee Haney was a son of Jerry and Louvina Haney, and was born at Avon, Mo., July 25, 1870. Death claimed him as before outlined, July 22, 1929, hence he was 58 years, 11 months and 27 days old at the time of his decease. He was educated in the country school at Coffman, attended a private school in Farmington, conducted by Prof. Thurman, and finished his general education at Cape Girardeau. Following this general education, he attended and graduated from the Beaumont Medical College in St. Louis, where he received his diploma and was admitted to the practice of his profession in this state.

He was married to Mary Ella Simpson at Libertyville, Mo., September 13, 1896, and ten children were born to this union, seven of whom, with the wife and mother, survive. They living children are Ralph and Earl, of Detroit, Mich.; Mrs. Mercer Hicks (Melba), Flat River; Mrs. R. C. O'Brien (Iva), Fredericktown; and Misses Lulu, Ruby and Ida May, at home. Three children preceded their father in death, Stella dying at the age of 12, and Paul and Helen Margaret passing away in infancy. He is also survived by his aged mother, Mrs. Louvina Haney, who resides at Coffman, but was making her home with him during this summer, and by three brothers and three sisters, George Haney, Chico, Calif.; Jerry Haney, Libertyville, Mo.; James Haney, Coffman, Mo.; Mrs. Elza Gordon, Coffman, Mo.; Mrs. John Boyd, Coffman; and Mrs. John Howlett, Albuquerque, New Mexico. He also leaves several grand children and a number of more distant relatives.

He was a member of the St. Francois-Iron County Medical Association, the state medical society, and had been affilliated with the national medical body for a number of years. He belonged to the Masonic and Odd Fellow lodges, being a member of A.F. & A.M. Elvins Lodge 599, Flat River and Scottish Rite, and of Flat River Lodge 469, I.O.O.F. For a number of years he served the Flat River district as a member of the board of education, holding the post of president of that body during a period of time when the school system showed splendid growth and expansion. He was local examiner for a number of insurance companies doing business in this district, and had been resident physician and surgeon for the St. Louis Smelting and Refining Works of National Lead Co., for 5 years. He was a member of the board of directors of the Commercial Bank of Flat River, having been one of the stock holders who organized that institution, and served for many years as a director of the local Y.M.C.A., in which institution he was intensely interested. For several years he held the position of county health physician, when that post was a part time position attended to by local physicians.

Dr. T. L. Haney, in his twenty-five years of practice in this community, entered thousands of homes and made thousands of acquaintances who quickly developed into warm friends. His service to his community, like that of any other busy practicing physician, was a service which took him into the inner family circles of his patients, where his generous heart and jovial disposition shared with them the joys of new born life as it came into being under the guidance of his skilled hands, or helped them ward off the threatening hand of death during dark hours of serious illness, and if all human efforts had proved unavailing and death was declared the victor, his genuine sympathy endeared him to those grief stricken ones with whom he had fought against sorrow to the last breath of life.

His personal life was big, broad and clean. He was a devoted lover of outdoor sports, an ardent hunter whose sportsmanship was never challenged, and was a devotee of the sport of bowling, taking an active interest in this game all during the season both at the Y.M.C.A. and the Bonne Terre Bowling Club. Even tempered, cool headed and deliberate, he was ever considerate of the feelings of others, and while no living man enjoyed a good joke more than he, that joke was never permitted to go far enough to hurt any other person in any manner whatever. He was temperate in his habits and in his speech, and his thousands of friends will endorse our statement that he was a good sportsman, a good citizen and a good man. His aged mother, his widow and his children can alone tell the extent of his goodness as son, husband, father.

Published by THE LEAD BELT NEWS, Flat River, St. Francois Co. MO, Fri. July 26, 1929.


BACK TO BIOGRAPHIES INDEX PAGE
HOME PAGE