Dr. Albert Gore

1920 - 2016

Dr. Albert Leroy Gore

Raymond

Dr. Albert Leroy Gore, a retired family practitioner and decorated military veteran, died peacefully at Belhaven Senior Care in Jackson, Mississippi, on December 13, 2016, at the age of 96.

Visitation for Mr. Gore will be held at Wright and Ferguson Funeral Home, 106 Cynthia Street, in Clinton, Mississippi from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Friday, December 16th, and from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. Saturday, December 17th. Services will be conducted Saturday at 10:00 a.m. at the funeral home in Clinton. Burial will follow at the City of Clinton cemetery on College Street.

Dr. Gore, a veteran of WWII and Southeast Asia, was a family practitioner in the Van Winkle community from 1955 to 1966 and is fondly remembered today by many of his patients. Dr. Gore was the first Chief of Staff at Hinds General Hospital and was one of its founding fathers.

An outstanding multi-sport athlete during the thirties and forties, Dr. Gore is a member of the Hinds Community College Sports Hall of Fame, the Mississippi College Sports Hall of Fame and the Mississippi Community College Sports Hall of Fame.

Dr. Gore was born on June 25, 1920, in the Burnt School House voting precinct near Eupora, Webster County, Mississippi. He was the oldest son of John Ellis Gore, Sr., a Southern Baptist preacher and missionary, and Mary Letha Pepper Gore. They had ten (10) children, eight (8) boys and two (2) girls.

Albert Gore graduated from Big Creek High School in Calhoun County in 1937. He received his undergraduate degrees from Hinds Community College in 1940 and from Mississippi College in 1947. His education at Mississippi College was interrupted by WW II during which he first served as an enlisted infantryman and later as a three stripe buck sergeant in the 155th Infantry, 31st Dixie Division.

While attending Hinds Community College Dr. Gore met Marianna Stokes, Miss Long Beach of 1938. They married on December 16, 1941, nine days following the attack on Pearl Harbor. They had five children had been married 75 years at the time of Dr. Gore's death.

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dr. Gore attended Signal Corps Officer Candidate School and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in August of 1942. He served as a signal corps officer both stateside and in the South Pacific until 1945 when the war ended.

After WW II Dr. Gore re-enrolled in Mississippi College where he completed his education and excelled in football as a running back under Coach Stanley Robinson. After kicking five extra points against Millsaps in 1946 he was known as "Golden Toe" Gore. Dr. Gore also served as President of the Mississippi College Student Body in 1946-47.

Following his graduation in 1947 from Mississippi College, Dr. Gore attended medical school at Tulane University where he graduated in 1951 with a degree in medicine.

Dr. Gore did his internship in 1951-52 at the City Hospital in Mobile Alabama. In 1952 Dr. Gore opened an office in Bay Springs, Mississippi, where he practiced general medicine as a family practitioner for nearly three years. In 1955 Dr. Gore moved to the Van Winkle Community in Jackson where, as a board certified practitioner, he practiced family medicine until 1966.

Following medical school Dr. Gore rejoined the Mississippi Army National Guard where he commanded the 213th Medical Battalion in Jackson. He served a one year term as President of the Mississippi National Guard Association and, as a licensed private pilot with an instrument rating, a term as President of the Mississippi Flying Physicians Association.

In 1966 Dr. Gore left his family practice and returned to active duty in the United States Army as a medical corps officer and flight surgeon. From 1966 to 1980 Dr. Gore commanded military hospitals at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Fort Lee, Virginia; and Fort Benning, Georgia. He also served in Thailand and Southeast Asia for 2 Years as commander of a medical group during the Vietnam War. Dr. Gore later served for 3 years as health director in the Panama Canal Company/Canal Zone Government.

After retiring from the Army in 1980 with the retired rank of Brigadier General, Dr. Gore taught family practice medicine at the University of South Alabama Medical College in Mobile until 1984. His last employment before retiring completely in May of 1987 was director of South Texas Hospital, a 125 bed facility in Harlingen, Texas, that specialized in pulmonary diseases.

Following his retirement on May 30, 1987, Dr. Gore moved to Diamondhead, Mississippi. Later he and Marianna moved to Clinton. In July of 2002, they moved to a garden home at the Rigg's Manor Retirement Center in Raymond where they both resided until their health necessitated their move to a nursing care facility.

Dr. Gore was Hinds community College alumnus of the year in 2006.

In 2009 the Mississippi Academy of Family Physicians selected Dr. Gore, one of the original members of the Academy, as Family Physician of the Year.

Dr. Gore, a four sport letterman at Hinds Junior College in 1938-39, was inducted into the Mississippi Community College Sports Hall of Fame in 2014.

Dr. Gore was predeceased by his parents, Reverend and Mrs. John Ellis Gore, Sr., by three of his brothers, Granville Ivan Gore, John Ellis Gore, Jr., Dudley Ivan Gore, and by his two sisters, Johnnie Faye (Gore) Weed and Ella Ruth (Gore) Smith.

Dr. Gore is survived by his wife of 75 years, Marianna Stokes Gore; five children, Billy Leroy Gore, Cheryl Gore Boyette, Debbie Gore Andrews, Marsha Gore Wallace, and Albert Marshall Gore; thirteen (13) grandchildren, thirteen (13) great grandchildren, and three step-grandchildren, including two sets of twin great granddaughters.

He is survived also by four of his brothers, Samuel Marshall Gore, Thomas Pepper Gore, residents of Clinton; Billy Wes Gore, a resident of Natchez, and Daniel Joseph Gore, a resident of Muncy, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Gore will be buried alongside his mother, Mary Letha Pepper Gore and father, John Ellis Gore, Sr., a decorated veteran of WW I and purple heart recipient, in the Clinton Cemetery in Clinton, MS.

Special thanks, recognition, and expressions of gratitude are given to the following individuals and health care providers, each of whom served with the highest degree of professionalism and expertise: Dr. William K. Harper, General Gore's cardiologist; Dr. Joseph B. Montgomery, Dr. Gore's family physician; Kenyatta Jackson and the staff at Home Instead, and the staffs at Riggs Manor, Belhaven Senior Care, and Pax Hospice.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Marianna Stokes Gore scholarship endowment fund at Hinds Community College in Raymond.