Rebecca Lee Dorsey

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Rebecca Lee Dorsey
A white woman in ruffled dress, with a white girl behind her; the girl's arms are wrapped around the woman, and their faces are held close together
Rebecca Lee Dorsey (and her niece, also named Rebecca Lee Dorsey), from a 1901 newspaper
BornAugust 30, 1859 
Port Deposit, Maryland
DiedMarch 29, 1954
Los Angeles, California
Occupation(s)Physician, obstetrician, endocrinologist
RelativesRobert Kellard (grand-nephew)

Rebecca Lee Dorsey (August 30, 1859 – March 29, 1954) was an American physician and endocrinologist. She is known as the world's first female endocrinologist and the first woman physician to practice in Los Angeles.[1]

Early life and education[edit]

Dorsey was born in Port Deposit, Maryland, the daughter of William Hammond Dorsey and Ellen Martha Gillespie Dorsey.[2] She was a sickly child, who cared for her mother and siblings as they died from tuberculosis.[1] She attended Wellesley College and later became the first Wellesley graduate to earn a medical degree.[3] Dorsey attended Boston University School of Medicine, graduating in June 1883. She then traveled to Europe to study under Louis Pasteur, Robert Koch, and Joseph Lister.[4] Shortly before her death in 1954, a Los Angeles Times profile called her "possibly the only living link in the medical world with the men who laid the foundations of modern medicine."[5]

Career[edit]

Dorsey moved to Los Angeles in 1886, and established her own medical practice, specializing in obstetrics, pediatrics, and later, endocrinology.[5] She was said to have been the attending physician at over 4,000 births during her lifetime (including the birth of Chief Justice Earl Warren), to have founded a nursing school and organized the city's first maternity ward, and to have administered the first diphtheria inoculation in Los Angeles in about 1893.[1] Dorsey retired from a full-time medical practice around 1913,[6] and established a date farm near Indio, California, with a variety of date palms imported from Egypt.[7]

Dorsey was involved in a number of legal disputes. In the 1890s, she was arrested for failing to report a case of typhoid, as required by law;[8] she was also sued by a widow who claimed that Dorsey failed to uphold a contract to make life insurance payments for a business partner.[9] In the 1910s, her finances came under the scrutiny again; she owed money to several creditors, but claimed that as a farmer she could not be legally forced into involuntary bankruptcy. Her creditors said she was not a full-time farmer, and was therefor not protected from bankruptcy.[10][11] The controversy lasted for several years.[12] She was still facing bankruptcy proceedings in 1922.[13]

Personal life[edit]

Dorsey never married. She adopted and raised her niece, who was named Rebecca Lee Dorsey Jr.[14] Dorsey Jr. married an actor, Ralph Kellard. They had a son, Robert Dorsey Kellard, who was also an actor. The physician Rebecca Dorsey died at her home in Los Angeles in 1954, at the age of 94, from lingering complications of a broken hip. Her grave is in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.[15]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Rasmussen, Cecilia (February 3, 1997). "A Medical Pioneer's Many Firsts". Los Angeles Times. p. 171 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ Daughters of the American Revolution, Lineage Book. p. 32.
  3. ^ Singer, Sandra L. (2003). Adventures abroad : North American women at German-speaking universities, 1868-1915. Praeger. p. 33. ISBN 9780313323713.
  4. ^ Davidson, J (2014). A century of homeopaths : their influence on medicine and health. Springer. ISBN 978-1-4939-0526-3.
  5. ^ a b Wibberley, Leonard (1954-02-05). "Story of Rebecca Lee Dorsey, M. D." The Los Angeles Times. p. 29. Retrieved 2023-01-03 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ "'Little Beckie': The Story of a Girl Who Rose from Humble Rank in Lower End to be Noted Physician in the West". The Inquirer. 1913-07-05. p. 5. Retrieved 2023-01-03 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ Gill, Monica (15 July 2016). The 100 most influential medical pioneers of all time (First ed.). Encyclopaedia Britannica. ISBN 9781508100959.
  8. ^ "Failed to Report a Case". Los Angeles Herald. 1896-11-14. p. 10. Retrieved 2023-01-03 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ "Woman Doctor Again in Court". Los Angeles Evening Post-Record. 1900-06-18. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-01-03 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "Farmer or No Farmer? Puzzling Question Arises in Federal Court". The Los Angeles Times. 1914-08-25. p. 15. Retrieved 2023-01-03 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ "Some More Dorsey". The Los Angeles Times. 1915-01-30. p. 11. Retrieved 2023-01-03 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "Oppose Confirmation; Unsecured Creditors Attack Referee's Report in Dorsey Case". The Los Angeles Times. 1916-02-29. p. 24. Retrieved 2023-01-03 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ Barnes, Eleanor M. (1922-11-13). "Story of Rebecca Dorsey". Los Angeles Evening Post-Record. p. 9. Retrieved 2023-01-03 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ WT (1901-03-30). "Rebecca Lee Dorsey, M.D." The Cecil Whig. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-01-03 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "Dr, Rebecca Kee Dorsey, Noted Obstetrician, Dies". The Los Angeles Times. 1954-03-30. p. 20. Retrieved 2023-01-03 – via Newspapers.com.
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