Southampton County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....Raiford, Dr. Rufus L., 1948 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/vafiles.htm ************************************************ DR. RUFUS L. RAIFORD TOWN SUFFERS GREAT LOSS IN DEATH OF DR. RAIFORD, FOUNDER OF LOCAL HOSPITAL EMINENT PHYSICIAN DIES IN HIS SLEEP - FOUNDED IN 1925 CLINIC WHICH BECAME PRESENT HOSPITAL - DEVOTED LIFE TO SERVICE OF SUFFERING HUMANITY. Franklin and Southampton County suffered an irreparable loss in the passing of Dr. Rufus L. Raiford, who died in his sleep sometime Friday night, June 25, at the residence, 108 N. High Street. He had been in ill health for some months, but the end came unexpectedly. At the time of his death he was 67 years of age. A native of this county, having been born in the Conley community, Dr. Raiford came to Franklin in 1925 from Sedley, where he had practiced as a county physician for about nineteen years. The clinic which he established in the old Virginia Hotel building in 1925 contained five beds, and was an extension of the clinic he had operated with three beds in his Sedley home. Thus began the hospital which was to bear his name. Persevering in his purpose to aid suffering humanity, within the span of a quarter of a century Dr. Raiford built his five-bed clinic into a modern 80-bed institution with a staff of six physicians and employing nearly 70 persons. Work of remodeling the old hospital started in the summer of 1944 and a new addition was erected. In November, 1945, the establishment reached its present proportions, with the name being changed from Raiford Memorial Hospital. Dr. Raiford continued to serve as chairman of the Board of Trustees until about a month before his death. Dr. Raiford was the son of the late George W. and Almedia Bowden Raiford of this county. He received his medical education at the university College of Medicine (now the Medical College of Virginia), Richmond, from which he graduated in 1906. Since his graduation he had devoted his energies to medicine in its application to relieving the suffering of the poor. Faced with the vicissitudes which beset a country practitioner of his earlier years, Dr. Raiford gave unsparingly of his time and talents to those unable to pay. The Group Clinic idea, which he started, affords specialized medical knowledge at a minimum cost. Though he had planned originally to concentrate on diseases of the ear, nose and throat, he was forced to perform all types of operations. Dr. Raiford was on of the leaders in organizing the Southampton County Health Department, and served for a number of years as secretary of the Southside Medical Association. He was a member of the American Medical Association, the Southern Medical Association, the Medical Society of Virginia, and the Southampton County Medical Society. A few years ago he became a member of the High Street Methodist Church. His wife, Mrs. Lora Katherine Bur[gess, gave] invaluable aid to Dr. Raiford in the early days of his practice and in the administration of the hospital. The story is told that on their honeymoon night the doctor and his bride drive several hours to reach the bedside of a negro child sick with pneumonia. The couple fought all night to save the child, remaining until the crisis had passed. Besides his wife he is survived by two sons, Dr. Morgan B. Raiford of Philadelphia and Dr. Fletcher L. Raiford of Franklin; a foster son, Fred Odell of Richmond; four granddaughters and a grandson; two sisters, Mrs. Joseph L. Hare of Holland and Mrs. Allen Neave of Guilford College, N.C.; and two brothers, E. Jerome Raiford of Petersburg and E. Wistar Raiford of Ivor. Funeral services for Dr. Raiford were conducted Monday morning at 10:30 o’clock at the grave in Poplar Spring Cemetery by Revs. Ernest W. Aaron and Jean A. Vache. As a tribute to a beloved fellow citizen the merchants of Franklin closed their places of business long enough to enable themselves and their employees to attend the last sad rites. Numerous floral offerings attested to the esteem in which Dr. Raiford was held by the people of both town and county. It is no exaggeration to say that he was loved and respected by all knew him. The pallbearers were his associates on the staff of the hospital which he founded: Dr. T.A. Morgan, Clifford F. Gayle, Kurt Hirsch, W.D. Varner, and Henry L. Gardner, Jr., A. Gibson Howell, Joseph S. Lennon, and Dr. James P. Broaddus. Dr. Rufus Livius RAIFORD (Sr.), founder of Raiford Memorial Hospital, b. Conley, Southampton Co., d. 26 Jun 1948, at home, Franklin, age 67, interred in Poplar Spring Cemetery (Annex 2, Plot 131*), Franklin, 28 Jun 1948, "The Tidewater News" (Franklin, VA), July 2, 1948, p. 1 *Southampton County Historical Society {SCHS} Cemetery Project, Poplar Spring list: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/cemeteries/psanx2.txt His widow's obit ("Tidewater News," Apr. 11, 1963, Sect. I, p. 6) is posted at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/obits/r163l3ob.txt Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Mrs. Bruce Saunders (bs4403@verizon.net), and re-formatted by File Manager. file at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/obits/r163r1ob.txt