M. Beckett Howorth

M. Beckett

Howorth, Jr., M.D.

Oxford

M. Beckett Howorth, Jr., M.D., died Wednesday, October 31, at his home in Oxford at the age of 89.

The funeral service will be held at First Presbyterian Church of Oxford at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, November 3, 2012. Visitation will be held at the Church on Friday, November 2, 2012 from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m., and again on Saturday in the hour preceding the funeral service. Burial will follow in Oxford Memorial Cemetery. Waller Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Born in Memphis in 1922, Dr. Howorth grew up in New York City, frequently visiting relatives in Mississippi. He attended Princeton and the University of Mississippi as an undergraduate, and then medical school at the University of Mississippi and Vanderbilt University, receiving his M.D. from Vanderbilt in 1946.

While at the University of Mississippi, he met Mary Hartwell Bishop. They were married in 1944.

After Dr. Howorth completed his service in the Navy in 1949, the Howorths moved to Marks, Mississippi, where he practiced as a general practitioner and they made some of their closest lifelong friendships.

In 1953, Dr. Howorth began a surgical residency at the Veterans Hospital in Memphis. For the next 10 years, the Howorths lived in Memphis, where Dr. Howorth practiced surgery and taught at the University of Tennessee Medical School.

In 1963, Oxford built a new hospital, now Baptist Memorial Hospital - North Mississippi, and several Oxford doctors recruited Dr. Howorth as the town's first board-certified surgeon to help establish the town as a medical center. The Howorths were happy to return to Mrs. Howorth's hometown, which Dr. Howorth had come to love in his days as a student. Dr. Howorth practiced surgery in Oxford until 1987. In retirement, Dr. Howorth served as Medical Director of Baptist Memorial Hospital - North Mississippi and for two terms as a member of the board of the Oxford School District.

Dr. Howorth was a member of the American College of Surgeons, the Rotary Club of Oxford, and the First Presbyterian Church of Oxford, which he served as deacon and elder.

Mrs. Howorth died in 2004. The Howorths' five sons all survive: David (Martha), Beckett III (Mary Hartwell), Richard (Lisa), Tom (Dorothy), and Andy (widower of Susan), all of Oxford. Dr. Howorth is also survived by twelve grandchildren, Katherine (Nat) Bouman, Emily (Marc Watkins), Vasser (George Brown), Emma (David) Flautt, Claire, Beckett IV, Bébé, Frances, Capel, Iris, Marian, and Stewart; one sister, Sev of Santa Fe, NM; a nephew, David Henton of Austin, TX and four great-grandchildren. In the last years of his life, Dr. Howorth was attended by Bertha Smith, Quanisha Williams, Bonnie Sheperd, and Mary Ann Henderson.

Memorials may be made to the Friends of the Library, P. O. Box 249, University, MS 38677 or to the charity of the donor's choice.

In honor of Dr. Howorth's service to his country, the flag of the United Sate Navy will be flown at Waller Funeral Home. Burial will follow in Oxford Memorial Cemetery.

For additional information or to sign an online guestbook, visit our website www.wallerfuneralhome.com or call 662-234-7971.