Dr. Harry K. Ogden
What do you remember about Dr. Harry? Share your stories and photos here, and invite others to come share their memories.
- Dr. Harry K. Ogden departed this
life on March 31, 2021. He had been a resident at
Morning Pointe-Powell (where he was known as
"Doc") since February 2015 following the death of
his beloved wife, Mary Peoples Ogden, to whom he
had been married 70 years before her passing the
month before.
Dr. Ogden was born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee,
on December 13, 1922, the son of Harry Purple
Ogden and Elsie Kay Lapsley Ogden, both of whom
predeceased him. Also predeceasing him were his
older daughter, Ann Lapsely Ogden Stout; his brother, Samuel Lapsley Ogden and sister, Frances Ogden Foreman.
After growing up in the Morningside community of Knoxville and a small
farm in South Knoxville, Dr. Ogden was drafted into the US Army, along
with most of his male classmates at the University of Tennessee in 1942.
Thanks to the GI Bill, he ultimately went to medical school, first at the
Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, VA, and then to the University
of Tennessee College of Medicine in Memphis, where he graduated in 1949.
After internship at John Gaston Hospital in Memphis, he entered private
practice for a year in Erwin, TN. Then he was drafted into the Army of Occupation in Germany during the Korean War. Following that Army stint, he
returned again to engage in private practice this time with the Acuff Clinic
in Lynch, Kentucky, as a coal mine town doctor, living across the street from
the hospital where he was "on call" about all the time.
In 1954, he opened his own family practice in Fountain City in the "Smithwood Doctors Building" behind the Smithwood Drugstore, where he treated
all people for all ailments and injuries for 20 years. This included about 2000
baby deliveries, including many African-American babies at the Knoxville
General Hospital. This was the only hospital in Knoxville at the time that
admitted African Americans.
In 1974, he became interested in emergency medicine and, closing his
family practice, joined a few other local physicians in forming the Knoxville
Emergency Physicians Group, to staff all the emergency departments of the
Knoxville hospitals; he served mostly at St. Mary's over the next nearly ten
years. He claimed that he sewed more stitches in the first year of that practice
than he had in 20 years of family medicine in Fountain City!
Then in 1982, he started the first walk-in medical clinic in Knoxville, to
provide medical care for people after hours and on weekends, when most
other medical practices were closed. Later during this time, he became
involved with providing care at Shannondale Healthcare Center and the
InterFaith Health Clinic, both of which he later served as Medical Director
for several years.
With failing eyesight and hearing, he ultimately retired from medical
practice. He engaged in many activities after that which he had pursued even
while actively practicing his profession and raising a family. These included
hiking in the Smoky Mountains, cultivating a sometimes-large backyard
vegetable garden, spending time with his wife and family at their lake house
on Douglas Lake, and watching or cheering on the Smokies baseball team,
both in Knoxville and Sevierville. He always enjoyed family dinners, holidays, and get-togethers.
In more recent years, he enjoyed and participated in as many activities as
he could at Morning Pointe-Powell, including daily exercise and devotions.
He enjoyed his mealtimes with table mates and the staff at Morning Pointe
immensely albeit on a more limited basis during COVID restrictions; he was
just getting back out and into the Morning Pointe activities routine when
God called him home.
Surviving are his sons, Harry (Amy) and James; daughter, Mary Beth
Obetz (David); grandchildren, Emily, Sarah, Stephen, Peter and David; great
grandchildren, Ruth, Mary, Gabriel, Grace, Sam, Judy, Greyson, Brendan
and Kirsten.
A Call at Convenience will be held between 10:00am-4:00pm at Gentry
Griffey Funeral Chapel on Monday, April 5, 2021. A memorial service will
be held at 2:30pm Tuesday, April 5, 2021 at First Presbyterian Church.
There will be a private family graveside service at Greenwood Cemetery
and a memorial Service of Witness to the Resurrection at First Presbyterian
Church, where he had served as an elder since 1960, on Tuesday, April 5 at
2:30 p.m. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to First Presbyterian
Church or the Interfaith Health Clinic.
Gentry Griffey Funeral Chapel is honored to serve the Ogden family and
invites you to view and sign the online register at www.gentrygriffey.com.