Jefferson County MsArchives Obituaries.....John Dixon, Jr. Coffey October 25 2003 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/ms/msfiles.html ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Ann Allen Geoghegan http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00008.html#0001878 May 2, 2004, 7:49 pm Natchez Democrat - Natchez, MS - Monday, October 27, 2003 NATCHEZ -- Memorial Services for John Dixon Coffey Jr., 82, of Natchez, who died October 25, 2003 will be Tuesday, October 28, at 4:30 p.m. at Trinity Episcopal Church. Visitation will follow the service. He was a pediatrician who practiced medicine for 53 years, of which 46 years were in Natchez. He was born March 2, 1921, in Vicksburg, the son of John D. and Helen Coffey. His father was an engineer with the Illinois Central Railroad. He also lived in Fayette and Baton Rouge, La., during his childhood. He graduated from Baton Rouge High School in 1937. He received his bachelor's degree from Louisiana State University in 1941 and his medical degree from LSU in 1944. He served his internship at Shreveport Charity Hospital from 1944-45. He was a general resident at Mercy Hospital in Vicksburg from 1945-46. He was a pediatric resident from 1946-48 at Shreveport Charity Hospital, where he met Patsy Clark. They married in 1948 and moved to Natchez that year. He was the first trained pediatrician in Natchez. He joined with Drs. Tom Gandy, John Bennett and Howard Kisner to form the Natchez Medical Clinic in 1950. He was certified by the American Board of Pediatrics and became a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics in 1952. He began serving in the U.S. Navy as a medical officer at the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Va., in 1953. He was discharged in 1955 as a commander. After completing fellowship studies at Duke University, he returned to Natchez in 1956 to resume his private practice. He joined the Children's Clinic with Drs. Don Killelea and Louis Lehmann in 1978. He retired in 1997 as the oldest practicing pediatrician in Mississippi. During his clinical practice, he conducted research and wrote several medical journal articles about his findings. A 1966 Pediatrics magazine article has been cited as a landmark study on the causes and treatment of ear infections. He was the first physician in Mississippi to do a blood-exchange transfusion on a newborn, and was the first recertified pediatrician in Mississippi. Coffey and Killelea were the first physicians in Mississippi to put babies on ventilators to help them breathe. He was on the Natchez Regional Medical Center staff and was a clinical instructor in pediatrics at LSU's Earl K. Long Memorial Hospital in Baton Rouge. His body was donated to the University of Mississippi Medical Center's Department of Anatomy. He was active in the Boy Scouts, serving as an assistant scoutmaster of Troop 168 and a leader of canoe, camping and hiking trips in Minnesota, Canada, Idaho, New Mexico and Arkansas. He was also an expert marksman and won numerous medals and trophies in pistol matches. He was a member of Trinity Episcopal Church. He was preceded in death by his parents, wife and infant daughter, Millicent. Survivors include his two sons, Mark Clark Coffey and John Mott Coffey, daughter in law, Laurie Harmon Coffey, three grandchildren, John Chesley Coffey, Patsy Kathryn Coffey and Anna Caroline Coffey, numerous cousins, and his decades long co-workers, Diane Meeks and Shirley Jones. This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/msfiles/ File size: 3.7 Kb