My great-uncle Daniel Oscar Willis, M.D.

 

Contact Randy Willis <www.randywillis.org> randy@randywillis.org

 

Dr. Daniel Oscar Willis was born March 8, 1875 in Rapides Parish, La. near Long Leaf and died December 23, 1935 from injuries sustained in an auto accident at LeBeau, La. He died at the hospital in Bunkie, La.  He married his first wife Ella Elizabeth Lamberth (b. January 16, 1871; died July 1, 1921) on December 24, 1895. Daniel and Ella had three children: Murphy Daniel Willis (b. November 13, 1897; d. October 15, 1930 after suffering with Hodgkin's disease for 14 years), Horace Oscar Willis (b. December 30, 1898; d. September 22, 1936) and Pearl Willis (b. October 24, 1900; d. April 20, 1988 in Baton Rouge, La.)  Pearl Willis was a music teacher for many years at LSU.

 

Daniel Oscar Willis married his second wife Mary Hamilton in 1928. They had one child: Hamilton Barrow Willis (b. November 25, 1931; d. ABT. 1990 in St. Francisville, La.).

 

Daniel Oscar Willis was buried on what would have been his and Ella's 40th. wedding anniversary, if they both had not died prematurely. They are both buried in the Leesville Cemetery, Leesville, La. He began his medical practice in 1904 and was the first medical doctor in Vernon Parish, La.  He also owned the first automobile in Vernon Parish. He was in United States Army Medical Corps in World War I and was commissioned as a Captain in August of 1917.  He owned the Hotel Leesville in Leesville, La.  He once (after being slandered by a young lawyer in a trial in Leesville) bodily removed the young lawyer from his room at the Hotel Leesville and through him in the street.  The young lawyer's name was  Huey P. Long.

 

Daniel Oscar Willis' parents were Daniel Hubbard Willis, Jr. (1839-1900) and Julia Ann Graham Willis (1845-1936).  Daniel Oscar Willis' siblings were:  Henry Elwa Willis (1867-1945), Carvelia S. Willis (1869-1941),  Minnie R. Willis (1870-1921), David Eugene Willis (1872-1880),  Corine Willis (1873-1873),  Robert Kenneth Willis, Sr. (1877-1951),  Ruthey Madella Willis (1880),  Stella Willis (1881-1881),  Julia  Coatney Willis (1883-1945),  and  my grandfather Randall Lee Willis (1886-1940).