John Houston McCLUNG

John Houston McClung died on Sunday, July 8, 2012, at his Kendal residence in Lexington. His daughters, Patricia (Portola Valley, Calif.), Susan Culpepper (Lexington), Nancy (Hendersonville, N.C.), Marney (Hendersonville, N.C.), Barbara Call (Harrisonburg), and his son, Jay (John Houston McClung Jr.) were with him. His wife of 58 years, Charlene (Honey) Mann McClung, predeceased him in 2007. He was the son of Anna (Nancy) Wayland McClung Gravatt and Dr. O. Hunter McClung Sr., and the half brother of Dr. O. Hunter McClung Jr., of Lexington, Eugenia McClung Nesbitt (Catonsville, Md.), and Eleanor McClung Powell (Suffolk, Va.). Their mother, Eugenia Harman McClung, had died in the influenza epidemic of 1918.
His father met and married Nancy, a Hopkins-trained nurse, in 1922. John was the last surviving member of this family, all raised in the white house on the corner of White Street and Jackson Avenue. In addition to his six children, McClung is survived by 15 grandchildren; and three great-children.
McClung was born on November 9, 1923, in Lexington, where he attended Lexington public schools and entered Virginia Military Institute (VMI) in 1940 (Class of 1944). He enrolled at University of Virginia (UVA) medical school in December of 1943, on an accelerated schedule because of World War II (which ended just as he finished his M.D.).
As an intern at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia he met a nurse--the love of his life--whom he married in her hometown of Lansdowne, Pa., October 1949. They moved to Glasgow, Va., the same month and immediately set up a medical practice. He operated a busy solo practice there for almost 47 years, retiring at age 72 in 1996.
McClung loved Rockbridge County and was proud of the fact that his ancestors were among the original Scotch-Irish pioneers who settled at Borden's Grant around 1740. He always said he was born to be a physician.
His grandfather finished medical school at UVA before the Civil War, and served the community of Fairfield until the turn of the century, when his son--John's father--took over before taking a job as the VMI physician, and eventually starting a private practice in Lexington. His brother, Hunter, 10 years his senior, also practiced in Lexington for many years. John was devoted to his patients and loved telling stories of the early days, when some house calls (including baby deliveries) in remote areas or bad weather were made on tractors, and once a hitched ride on a logging truck.
He and his wife raised their family at Balcony Downs near Glasgow, moving to Providence Hill in Lexington in 1986 after the children left home, and eventually retiring to Kendal at Lexington. He enjoyed good health until very recently, when his children were able to care for him his last weeks with the help of Rockbridge Area Hospice and the staff at Kendal's Webster Center.
The family will receive visitors at Harrison Funeral Home in Lexington from 4 to 6 p.m. on Tuesday, July 10, 2012. His ashes will be interred in a private family service at Stonewall Jackson Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that memorial gifts be made to Rockbridge Area Hospice or another charity. Arrangements by Harrison Funeral Home & Crematory, Lexington, Va., 540-463-2912.