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A pioneering healthcare provider in Dallas, Dr. Walter R. McMillan (1873-1958) was born in Quitman (Wood County) to James McMillan and Jane Regan-McMillan. He attended Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, concentrating in obstetrics. After graduating in 1909, Dr. McMillan moved to Dallas to start his own practice, sharing an office with attorney J.L. Turner Sr. He met and married Meirriell Vain Thomas (1892-1967). The marriage produced two sons, Walter C. and Marion. His four children from a previous marriage to Aria Brinkley, Walter, Lillie May, Xenophon and Ollie Lee, joined the couple in Dallas. Ollie Lee followed her father into medicine, becoming the first African American nurse to be hired by Parkland Hospital in 1931.
During the Jim Crow Era, African Americans faced significant discrimination in the healthcare field, whether as patients or staff. Dallas’ existing medical facilities for African Americans were overloaded. Seeing the need, Dr. McMillan sought to expand healthcare opportunities. In 1923, he opened McMillan Sanitarium, a two-story building housing doctor’s offices, surgical complex and insurance offices, in addition to other businesses. Along with serving patients, McMillan Sanitarium allowed Dr. McMillan to mentor African American doctors, surgeons and nurses on staff before establishing practices of their own, with notable examples including Dr. L.G. Pinkston, Dr. W.K. Flowers, Dr. William Green and Dr. Samuel L. Brown. In addition to medical interests, Dr. McMillan was active in the civic arena. He was a trustee of St. Paul Methodist Church on Routh Street and helped to develop the Moorland Branch of the YMCA. As one of a handful of practicing African American doctors, Walter McMillan was an influential healthcare provider in the city of Dallas.
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