Robert Lee May, M. D., Cuba, AL., then Richland Parish, Louisiana Submitted by Mike Miller ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** Robert Lee May, M. D., who attained the rank of major in the Army Medical Corps during his overseas service, has in his private practice devoted himself to his professional work at Delhi, in Richland Parish, since 1908. Doctor May graduated in medicine from the University of Tennessee in 1900. For one year he practiced at his old home in Chunky, Mississippi, and for several years was a physician and surgeon at Baskin in Franklin Parish, Louisiana, removing from that locality to Delhi. Doctor May did postgraduate work in the University of Tennessee in 1907 and his professional experience was greatly broadened during his army service. He was commissioned a first lieutenant in the Army Medical Corps August 8, 1917. He spent five weeks at Camp Greenleaf, then at Camp Lee, Virginia, and on January 2, 1918, embarked for overseas with the Five Hundred and Sixth Battalion of Engineers. In France he was transferred to the command of the hospital at St. Sulpice, and on June 1st was transferred to the Eighteenth Engineers, in charge of the hospital at Bassens. Subsequently he was transferred to the advance Red Cross Hospital No, 114. On October 4, 1918, he was promoted to major and put in charge of the hospital at Tamaris, a 500-bed convalescent hospital. On December 18, 1918, he was ordered home and received his honorable discharge at Camp Dix, New Jersey, January 17, 1919. In March, 1919, he accepted a commission as major of Reserve Hospital Unit No. 410 in the Fourth Army Corps. Major May was born at Cuba, Alabama, December 28, 1874, son of John F. and Mary Francis (Reeves) May, his mother now living at Chunky, Mississippi. John F. May, who died in May, 1922, at the age of sixty-seven, was just twenty years of age when his son, Doctor May, was born. He had a varied business career, chiefly in the timber industry and merchandising, and in 1884 located at Chunky, Mississippi. There were three children: Dr. Robert L.; John A., in the wholesale grocery business at Newton. Mississippi; and Lula H. Morris, of Chunky. Robert L. May grew up in a small Mississippi town, attended country schools, private schools and had one term each at a school at Poplarville and Hickory, Mississippi. When not in school he spent his the working in his father's store and saw mill, and subsequently entered the medical school of the University of Tennessee, where he was graduated at the age of twenty-five. Doctor May married Miss Gertrude E. Morris, daughter of D. A. Morris, of Vossburg, Mississippi. They have two children: Robert G. and Francis Marion. Doctor May is a Baptist, is a Royal Arch Mason, member of the Woodmen of the World, belongs to the Clark Woods Post of the American Legion, and is a member of the Parish, State and American Medical associations. His favorite recreation is fishing. NOTE: The sketch is accompanied by a black and white photograph/drawing of the subject. A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 343-344, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.