Dr. John E. Ingram, MD

John E. Ingram, MD, age 86, passed away on Friday, September 3, 2010, at Kansas City Hospice. John was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming on March 25, 1924, the second of six children, to John and Clare Ingram. Soon after, the family moved to Rawlins, Wyoming, John's childhood home, where he grew up throwing newspapers, playing football, chasing horny toads and rattlesnakes, building balsa wood airplanes and all of the other things boys did during the depression. John reminisced that Wyoming did better than most of the country during the thirties because of the oil and gas industry, and his family was always comfortable and secure.

After graduating from Rawlins High School in 1942, John joined the Army. After completing basic training, he was admitted into the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) at LSU. After the ASTP program was cancelled a year later, John joined the 99th Infantry Division at Camp Maxey, Texas. John shipped out for Europe with the 99th Infantry, where he fought in the Battle of the Bulge, crossed the Remagen Bridge under heavy German shelling the day after its capture, and was involved in the capture and surrender of Germany on VE Day.

John experienced firsthand the atrocities of the Holocaust when his unit was assigned to the infamous Dachau concentration camp a few months after its liberation. He was taken back at the stockpiles of buttons, shoes, and other personal items that had been taken from the prisoners and neatly stored in the camp's warehouses. A heartbreaking sight to imagine that every article had a tragic story to tell.

After being honorably discharged from the Army when WWII ended, John saw London and France before returning home to Rawlins where he began working, briefly, at the local Sinclair Refinery. An accident where one side of his glasses were shattered and damaged his eye convinced him that he should look into another career, and he applied to Creighton Medical School to study medicine. After years of hard study, he graduated in 1956 and moved to Kansas City for an internship at St. Margaret's Hospital and afterwards bought out Dr. Haas' family medical practice in Argentine.

Shortly thereafter he met a lovely young brunette on a blind date. Her name was Barbara. John married Barbara Hughes on March 2, 1957. They moved into a house on Maple Hill in Kansas City, Kansas, where the couple raised their three children. John practiced general family medicine for forty years at his office at 34th & Strong Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas. As was the custom in the '50's and 60's, the young doctors got to deliver babies, and John estimated he delivered well over 800 in his career.

John always tried to be generous to his patients by giving away stockpiled samples of medicine to the disadvantaged. One of his favorite patients ran a butcher shop and paid his bills with Polish sausage. Once a despondent youth came to the office looking for food and John bought him a meal and then got him a bus ticket so he could return home for a fresh start in life. On another occasion, a patient had considered suicide, but after a long talk with the doctor, the patient turned over his pistol and went on to marry and start a large and happy family.

John served a term as president of the Wyandotte County Medical Association, was on the Board of Directors at Providence and St. Margaret's Hospitals, and was a member of the American Medical Association. He loved telling the story of the first house call he made in 1957 where after going to treat a sick patient in the middle of the night, he was called a pirate when he asked for five dollars to charge for the visit. Medicine has changed considerably over the years.

Photography was his favorite hobby, and he was rarely seen without his trusty Minolta. John was also an avid book collector. When asked the secret of how he read so many books, he laughed and said that he would read the first sentence of a paragraph, and if it was interesting, he would read the rest; otherwise he would skip to the next paragraph. John was also something of a handyman when it came to carpentry and home repair. He built desks, cabinets, bookcases, and the backyard deck, and knew how to do electrical and plumbing work. John enjoyed gardening and always put out seed for the birds.

John and Barbara loved to travel. When the children were younger, the family traveled extensively to visit friends and relatives and the sights. John and Barbara also visited Hawaii, Ireland, England and Belgium. John was a member of the Kansas City Westerners Club, the Serra Club, and was very active with the 99th Infantry Association.

John was preceded in death by Barbara, his wife of 49 years, his brother Bill and sisters Catherine and Margaret. He is survived by his brother Dr. Jim Ingram and his wife Peggy of Ft. Collins, Colorado; his sister, Sister Pauline Ingram, a Dominican nun, of Sinsinawa, Wisconsin; his son John L. and wife Anne and daughters Katie and Jessica of Williamsburg Virginia; his son Tom and wife Sue and daughters Samantha and Maddy of Overland Park, Kansas; and his daughter Stephanie and husband Danne Webb and their children Hannah and Braden of Leawood, Kansas.

Cremation. A Mass in celebration of John’s life will be held at St. Ann’s Catholic Church in Prairie Village, Kansas at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, September 10, 2010. A lunch reception for all guests will follow immediately thereafter at the Church.

In lieu of flowers, the family would be honored by contributions to the American Cancer Society, or to a charity of your choice.