Dr. Sarah R. Chitwood

Sarah R. Chitwood Dr. Sarah R. Chitwood, affectionately known to friends and patients as "Dr. Sarah," died Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2010, in Roanoke from pneumonia. Dr. Sarah's family will gather in her honor Saturday, Oct. 30, from noon to 4 p.m. at the home of Lee Chitwood, 20 Northwood Drive, Pulaski. The family invites all who wish to share a memory of Dr. Sarah to attend on this date. She was born Oct. 14, 1922, in Newport News. She graduated May 23, 1940, from Man High School, home of the Hillbillies, in Logan County, W.Va. Following completion of an undergraduate degree in pre-medicine from West Virginia University on May 23, 1943, Dr. Sarah attended the Medical School of the University of Virginia and received a degree in pediatrics on June 14, 1948. Following graduation, she married the late Dr. Ed Chitwood Jr. of Wytheville of Wytheville. Dr. Sarah then worked as a contract physician for the U.S. Army in Germany for approximately two years. She completed her residency in pediatrics at the Children's Hospital in Louisville, Ky., in 1952. Dr. Sarah and her growing family moved to Pulaski in 1953 and eventually settled in the Draper community in 1963. Although Dr. Sarah initially practiced pediatrics, she soon changed to the mental health field, working at many of the health departments in Southwest Virginia, including Pulaski, Floyd, Salem and Roanoke. Dr. Sarah had lifelong passions for painting, reading, music, gardening, cooking and tennis. Dr. Sarah's parents, Dr. Russell Watson Roberts and Ottie Virginia Akers Roberts, predeceased her. Also predeceasing Dr. Sarah were her husband, Dr. Edmund Madison Chitwood Jr.; and an infant daughter, Sarah Chitwood. Surviving Dr. Sarah are her sister, Jeanne Roberts Linam of Shreveport, La., and Mrs. Linam's four daughters, Linda Etter of Dallas, Texas, Carole Gaskins of Raleigh, N.C., Alexa Hutchens of Natchitoches, La., and Jeannie Linam of San Francisco, Calif.; and Dr. Sarah's five children, Bryan Roberts Chitwood and his wife, Monica, of Greensboro, N.C., Dr. Ava Chitwood of Tampa, Fla., Susan Howard Chitwood and her husband, Henry Smyth, of Cortland Manor, N.Y., Dr. Edmund Madison Chitwood III and his wife, Suzanne Tanner Chitwood, and their son, Dawson Lee Chitwood, of Charlottesville, H. Lee Chitwood and wife, Pamela Morris Chitwood, and their four children, Rachel Elizabeth Chitwood, Edmund Douglas Chitwood, Madison Ellen Chitwood and Riley Ann Chitwood, of Pulaski. Mullins Funeral Home & Crematory in Radford is in charge of the arrangements.