Dr. Joseph E. Knighton Biography 1870-1950

Description

Dr. Joseph Edward  Knighton was born in Claiborne Parish in 1870 and for several years as teen lived with his uncle doctor in Texas.  This may have given him a taste of the career to which he would devote his life.  Knighton graduated in 1899 from the University of Nashville’s Medical School.  He began practicing in Homer, Louisiana after graduating. 

Around 1910, he and another Homer doctor, James C. Willis joined their practices and moved to the growing community of Shreveport. Dr. Knighton, however, wasn’t your typical country doctor studying at Tulane, Johns Hopkins, and Chicago Universities as well as European hospitals.  Both Drs. Knighton and Willis grew in stature in the Shreveport and within the Louisiana medical community and in 1929, they along with several other physicians bought the Tri-State Hospital.

Dr. Knighton would be deeply involved in the Shreveport community affairs until his death in 1950. His son, James E. Knighton, would carry on the family tradition becoming a doctor and practicing alongside his father and his daughter, Ruth, married a long-time associate, Dr. William S. Kerlin. 

Location in Museum

Talbot Museum Digital Archive

Age

1871-1950

• Dr. Joseph Knighton Obituary 1950