Marilyn Gregory Porter MD

Marilyn Gregory Porter, MD, went to be with the Lord on August 2, 2024. She was much-loved and will be sorely missed. She was born in Oklahoma City on March 12, 1931, to Lola Nichols Gregory and Marshall Gregory, both educators and community leaders, who taught Marilyn to be interested in everything from advances in education, nutrition, horticultural practices, photography and carpentry, mathematics, and music, and to care for others, especially family. They raised Marilyn and her two younger twin sisters, Janis and Joyce, on 21st Street in a home and garden they constantly redesigned, surrounded by close friends and their extended Nichols and Gregory families. Marilyn excelled at school, and the violin and piano. She was often asked to play the piano or organ at First Baptist Church and was one of the star pupils of a well-known local piano teacher, Herbert Ricker. She was also active in Camp Fire Girls.
In 1948, she graduated from Classen High School and ventured out to Western College in Ohio on a one-year Westinghouse scholarship, then the following 3 years at the University of Oklahoma, majoring in Biology and forming lifelong friendships including her soon-to-be husband Stan, over conversations and bridge games, and ping pong at the OU Baptist Student Union. Marilyn was determined to be a doctor, and in Stan she found a true partner who respected her drive and intelligence. They married after her graduation from OU in 1952 and she continued on to OU Medical School, we believe the only woman in her class, although a few others were in the class ahead and behind, forming an elite and pioneering cadre of women physicians at OU in the early 50's.
Again, she excelled, and also took the time to be the Resident Advisor for Nurses, and to attend sit-ins and protests against racial inequality for her fellow medical students who were often not served by many local restaurants at the time, and to correspond with and visit Stan, who was fulfilling his ROTC responsibilities for the Navy. Marilyn received her medical degree from OU in 1956, and although she matched with a prestigious surgical residency in Oklahoma, chose to find a residency in New York City where Stan had been accepted to medical school (after she persuaded him that medicine was his true vocation). She became pregnant and the internal medicine residency she had arranged in New York withdrew their offer, stating that a pregnant woman was not up to the challenge, but they did not know Marilyn! She convinced another residency to give her a chance at Bellevue Hospital in New York City and thus made a life-changing shift into pediatrics which later became pediatric gastroenterology, hepatology, and nutrition. There she participated in groundbreaking TB research and also research into liver diseases in children. Together, Marilyn and Stan got through their medical residencies and fellowships as young parents, and returned to Oklahoma City to practice medicine and raise their family.
After several years and with four young children and an OB/GYN husband on obstetrics call almost every night, Marilyn decided to step back from her active practice of medicine for a few years to focus on family, but never gave up being a physician-keeping up with her continuing education, grand rounds, and all her specialty medical journals (often reading them to her children as bedtime stories) while also taking active leadership roles in her community, church, and her children's schools-often acting as a medical advisor or giving school physicals, and memorably leading an early movement against soda and candy in the schools as early as the 70's- and leading a boys' Cub Scout troop and 3 different Camp Fire Girls groups.
In their spare time, Marilyn and Stan designed their dream home with all the advanced technologies-geothermal and solar capabilities as well as a tornado shelter that theoretically could withstand a nuclear attack. When the general contractor left, Marilyn took that on as well, despite the fact that she had a broken leg at the time. By the time the house was finished and all the kids were over 12, Marilyn returned to medicine, first with a new residency as a pathologist so she could be home when the kids got home from school, then back to her specialty-arranging a fellowship in her late 40's at the pediatric gastroenterology department at OU Children's Hospital so she could fully train in all the latest advances, including endoscopies and colonoscopies.
Marilyn and Stan had co-founded Porter Medical Associates on the southside and now she opened a northwest Oklahoma City office and saw patients there and at hospitals throughout Oklahoma City. For many years she was one of only two pediatric gastroenterologists in the area. She continued helping patients for 40+ more years, helping many with unusual and difficult diagnoses, and covering the range from babies with colic or failure to thrive issues to older teens with Celiac disease, and everything in between. With her keen intelligence and immense heart, she was the doctor relatives and friends and everyone who knew her would consult. She actively saw patients, was consulted throughout the state, kept up with the latest research, and continued taking her specialty board exams into her 80's, finally retiring in 2016.
She was sadly preceded in death by many of her loved ones including both parents; her beloved husband, Dr. A. Standley Porter; grandson, Josh; both sisters, Joyce and Janis and their spouses Bill and Don; her brother-in-law Bill; her nephew, Chris; and too many close friends.
She is survived by her 4 children and their spouses, all of whom she loved very much-Greg and Tiffany, Sharon, Carolyn and Marc, Catherine and Alex, and also a bonus almost-daughter, Wynn, who lived with Marilyn and Stan during high school; her sister-in-law and of the heart Mary; her nieces and nephews, Ashley, Tim, Lauren, Steve, Leslie, Guy, Grant, and Lance, and many beloved relatives and friends.
Everyone is invited to a gathering to celebrate and remember Marilyn Gregory Porter, MD, at Mercer-Adams Funeral Service, 3925 N Asbury, Bethany, OK from 5-8pm on Friday, August 9, and a memorial service at 4:30pm, Saturday, August 10 at First Baptist Church of Oklahoma City, 1201 N Robinson Ave., OKC.
Memorial contributions may be made to the First Baptist Church Marilyn Gregory Porter, MD Fund and will be used for a restoration of the chapel organ as well as other church needs.