William Barr Wilson MD

Bill Wilson died peacefully June 23 at the Mississippi Baptist Medical Center after a brief illness. Bill was born in Greenville, Mississippi, on May 31, 1930, the son of Dr. Robert Ermon Wilson and Kathleen Moore Wilson. He grew up in Greenwood, and attended the Webb School in Bell Buckle, Tennessee. He was awarded the prestigious Founder’s Scholarship to attend Vanderbilt University. He pledged Phi Delta Theta and graduated in three years so that he might start medical school in 1951, also at Vanderbilt University. While in medical school, he met Baiba Strautins, the daughter of a Nashville physician, and they married in 1959. Bill trained in Internal Medicine and Anatomic Pathology, and served two years as a ship-board medical officer in the Navy. In 1964, he moved his young family from Nashville to Jackson to become the director of laboratories at the Mississippi Baptist Medical Center, a position he held until his retirement in 1998.

William’s time in the Navy piqued his interest in exploring the world. He and Baiba travelled every year to favorite destinations in Europe and to exotic locales in Asia, Africa, and Australia. He appreciated historic buildings and art, and loved spending days in peaceful countrysides and famous cities around the world. Mostly, he loved good food and wine, and together Bill and Baiba dined at the finest restaurants in the world. His last overseas trip was to Paris in 2009, where they celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary, joined by their children and grandchildren. In Jackson, Bill and Baiba threw legendary parties and dinners, with all the food prepared in Baiba’s kitchen, and the wines selected from Bill’s wine cellar. They created a fantastic garden around their house, and spent countless hours together tending their roses and flowers. Bill always loved reading and literature, and in his last years he continued to travel the world through books, sitting in his living room with its sweeping views and surrounded by his lifetime of memories. He was blessed with good health until the last weeks of his life, and died unexpectedly of pneumonia with his wife and children at his side.

Bill leaves to cherish his memory his wife of 56 years, Baiba, his children, William, Jr. (Olga) of Chicago, IL, and Peter (Martha) of Huntsville, AL, his two granddaughters, Kristyn and Caroline and his sister, May Wilson Saffold, of Greenwood.

Visitation for Bill will be held on Monday, June 27, 2016 from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm at Parkway Funeral Home in Ridgeland, MS. Following the visitation, a graveside will be held at Lakewood Memorial Park in Jackson, MS.