DR. BENJAMIN “BEN” LAMPTON CRAWFORD, JR. (1923-2024) — This is an image of Benjamin Lampton Crawford, Jr., MD, a respected Tylertown physician to generations in Southwest Mississippi who passed away on January 29, 2024.1 His patients lovingly called him “Dr. Ben,” just as they called his two physician brothers “Dr. Everett” and “Dr. Walter.” His passing at the end of January was of historical note due to not only his exceptional medical practice but also his role in a pivotal medical family in our state: the Crawfords of Tylertown, a family which has produced three MSMA presidents. He is buried in the Crawford family plot in Tylertown Cemetery, an impressive plot which includes four physicians (and two MSMA presidents) who worked together and their wives who long served their community.
Ben’s father, Dr. Benjamin Lampton Crawford, Sr. (1879-1964), a Walthall County native, graduated from Mississippi College and followed his physician brother Walter (who began the Crawford family tradition in medicine and who served as president of the MSMA in 1906-7) to Tulane and Jefferson Medical College, where he graduated with his MD in 1904. He then performed his “interne” work briefly in Fernwood with his brother-in-law Dr. Walter Bethea and then with his brilliant brother in Hattiesburg for an extended period, eventually working as his partner at the South Mississippi Infirmary until 1908. However, his father and sisters coaxed him back to his native Tylertown, where “Lampton” (which was the name he went by) opened an office above the Tylertown Drug Store in 1908 and married Myrtis Eva Lea in 1909, who would support his important work throughout the rest of their lives. Although he admitted patients and managed for a period Tylertown Hospital in 1929-30, he eventually desired to open his own hospital. With the arrival home of his son Everett, a surgeon who had graduated from UT-Memphis in 1936, he created in 1938 16-bed Walthall Hospital on Tylertown’s main “drag,” Beulah Avenue, by converting the large home of his sister Nan Crawford Rimes into a hospital. In 1939, he added a ten-room annex, which included a charity ward in the basement floor and a nurses’ home behind the structure. With the addition of Drs. Walter and Ben Crawford in the post-war period, the hospital would grow further. The hospital eventually expanded to 40 rooms. The hospital’s economic impact on Tylertown’s development as a critical regional community was significant.2
Lampton Crawford would serve longer as MSMA president than any other person in the history of the MSMA, serving from 1944-46. He was the only president to serve a two-year term, which he did due to the Second World War and the decision of the board not to hold an annual session in 1945. He also served on the State Board of Health from 1916-1924 and was a charter member of the Tri-County (now South Central) Medical Society. His three sons, Everett, Walter, and Ben, all veterans of the Second World War, would serve by his side as physicians in Tylertown for decades. His son Everett would serve as MSMA President from 1965-6, and his son Walter would serve as President of the Mississippi Academy of Family Physicians from 1969-70. His grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren have also gone into medicine, including Dr. Ramon Lott, Dr. Benjy Crawford, Dr. Howell Crawford, Dr. Brett Lampton, Dr. Lucius “Luke” Lampton, Dr. Jane Ann Moore, Crawford Lampton, and Wyatt Lampton.3
Dr. Ben Crawford, the third of Dr. Lampton Crawford’s three physician sons, was born on September 19, 1923, in Tylertown and spent his life there except when he was in the military, away at school, and in an assisted living facility close to his daughter near the end of his life. He was very devoted to Tylertown, Walthall County, and the people there, always. Devoted, a lovely word, to the place he belonged to. He was also devoted always to his family. He was preceded in death by his wife of 50 years Jean Wall Crawford. His immediate family consists of three children, Benjamin L. “Benjy” Crawford, III, MD (Elsie), James L. Crawford (Cindy), Dr. Janis C. Booth (Philip); four grandchildren, Benjamin L. Crawford, IV, Tyler B. Crawford (Laurie), Leslie J. Booth, Dr. Nathan R. Booth (Stephanie); and six great grandchildren, Anna E. Crawford, Reid B. Crawford, Tucker Crawford, Caroline Crawford, Marshall Crawford, and Isabelle Booth.1
Dr. Ben graduated from Tylertown High School in 1941, then attended East Central Junior College until joining the US Army in 1943. He served in France, Belgium, and England during World War II. After the War he resumed his education in medicine at the University of Mississippi and eventually Tulane University where he received his medical degree in 1953. After a year of internship at Mid-State Baptist Hospital in Nashville, he returned to Tylertown in 1954 to practice medicine with his brothers until he retired in 1990. He was a traditional small town general practice physician. He delivered babies, made house calls, and treated all ages. He was on the board of directors for MS Region 12 Mental Health Services for a number of years after retiring. Dr. Ben was a lifelong member of the Tylertown Baptist Church. He was civic minded and a member at times of the Junior Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club, and Chamber of Commerce.1,4,5
In the late 1960s, Walthall County leaders came together to build a $1.5 million 60-bed Hill Burton facility near Tylertown’s city limits on Highway 98 West. Tylertown and the Walthall County area had long been served by the Crawford’s hospital and Tylertown Hospital. A local newspaper wrote at the new hospital’s opening in March 1970: “Tylertown has had two private hospitals operating until last year when the Tylertown Hospital was closed. The Walthall Hospital has continued in service but will be closed and its three practicing physicians, brothers, Dr. Everett Crawford, Dr. Walter Crawford and Dr. Benjamin L. Crawford, along with Dr. J. J. Pittman, former owner of the Tylertown Hospital, and Dr. James McLain will join the staff of the new county facility.” The new hospital administrator would describe the new institution as a “self-contained small city,” with an auxiliary power plant to be utilized during the event of a major power failure. Dr. Everett Crawford, Ben’s brother, would be elected first president of the hospital’s medical staff, with Dr. Ben elected the hospital’s first vice president. The Crawford brothers would establish The Doctor’s Clinic next door to the new hospital. Dr. Ben also was one of three developers of a 50-bed nursing home in Tylertown built next to the new hospital in 1969.3,6–14
Ben’s uncle, Walter Wesley Crawford, MD (1872-1954), would serve as President of the MSMA in 1906-7, and in that capacity helped found the Southern Medical Association in 1906. He served as SMA President in 1910 and as President of the State Board of Health from 1924-30. After his extensive international medical training, he settled in Hattiesburg, where he established South Mississippi Infirmary and became one of the most important surgeons in Mississippi’s history. He also helped establish Camp Shelby, which was originally called “Camp Walter Crawford.” Ben recalled to me visiting his uncle as a child with his father Lampton at his uncle’s attractive Hattiesburg residence located next door to the South Mississippi Infirmary, sitting on its porch and smelling the several cigars his Uncle Walter smoked!4,5,15,16
This photograph of Dr. Ben Crawford on the front porch of his long-term residence in Tylertown (700 Broad Street) was taken ten years ago by his great-great-nephew Crawford Lampton, who is now carrying on the Crawford medical tradition as a second-year medical student at UMMC. Also, see images of a 1956 prescription from Walthall Hospital which includes the names of the senior Dr. Crawford and his three sons, a newspaper photograph of Dr. Ben Crawford working to improve his hometown, a photograph of Dr. Lampton and his sons, a photograph of the “Crawford Infirmary” in Hattiesburg, a photograph of Drs. Lampton and Walter with their father Howell, and a photograph of Walthall Hospital on Beulah Avenue in Tylertown.
Dr. Ben Crawford: Requiescat in pace.
If you have an old or even somewhat recent photograph which would be of interest to Mississippi physicians, please send it to me at drluciuslampton@gmail.com or by snail mail to the Journal. — Lucius M. “Luke” Lampton, MD; JMSMA Editor