James O. McBride

1918 - 2005

James O'Neill McBride, M.D., 86, died Friday, March 11, 2005.

Memorial Service: 11 a.m. Tuesday at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church. The Rev. Stanley Maneikis will officiate. Private interment in Greenwood Memorial Park. Visitation: The family will receive friends in Moncrief Hall following the service.

Memorials: His memory may be honored with a donation to the Tarrant County Medical Society Scholarship Fund, 3855 Tulsa Way, Fort Worth 76107.

James O'Neill McBride was born March 31, 1918, in Fort Worth to Irene and James McBride. He was a third-generation resident of Fort Worth and graduated from Central High School in 1934 and TCU in 1938 where he was captain of the golf team and a member of the band. Upon graduation, he was invited to join the professional golf tour, but declined in order to pursue his medical career. He graduated from the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston in 1942.

After graduation from medical school, he returned to Fort Worth and completed an internship at City-County Hospital (now known as John Peter Smith). Thereafter, he went on active duty with the Navy and spent the next three years (1943-46) in the Pacific theater as a junior member of Surgery Team 17 of the Seventh Amphibious Force. Dr. McBride made nine invasions on an LST. He was awarded a Navy Unit Citation and nine battle stars.

After military service, he joined the residency program at Bellevue Hospital and later a second one at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, where he was chief resident in thoracic surgery. While in Manhattan, he met Margaret Overmyer of Wellesley, Mass. They were married in 1949 and returned to Fort Worth in 1951 where he established his surgical practice in thoracic surgery. He started the first open heart surgery program in Fort Worth at St. Joseph Hospital in 1959.

After actively practicing for almost 40 years, he began a medical consulting practice which lasted until the year of his death. During his career he was chief of staff and chief of surgery at St. Joseph Hospital. He was on staff at All Saints Episcopal Hospital and later was director of Home Health Services.

Dr. McBride was deeply involved in the community. His roles included being president and board member of the John White Foundation; president and member of the American Lung Association; chairman and board member of Camp Carter and the YMCA; board member of the Carter Blood Center; board member and chairman of the scholarship committee of Fort Worth Country Day School.

A longtime member and past president of the Tarrant County Medical Society, he served on the Physicians' Health and Rehabilitation Committee, initiated the Scholarship Committee and was a member of the Executive Committee and Board of Censors. Dr. McBride received the Gold-Headed Cane Award in 1989, presented annually by the Tarrant County Medical Society.

Dr. McBride and his wife, Margot, celebrated 48 years of marriage before her death in 1997.

Survivors: Children, James H. McBride and his wife, Nancy, and their son, James, Betty Alcorn and her husband, Stewart, and their sons, Sam and Peter, Mary Ann Huston and her husband, Michael, and daughter, Ann and son, Thomas; and Michael McBride and his wife, Robin, and their daughters, English and Ella; aunt, Virginia Mulvaney; longtime assistant, Mary D. Schmidt; and special friend, Mary Jane Johndroe.