DUANE
Duane's take
Now, I'm gonna tell you this one just like the marker tells it to me — so hold on, because this story starts way before Odessa was even a dot on a West Texas map. Some families carry a thing down through the generations. Could be a stubborn streak, could be a piece of land.
The Headlee family carried medicine. Emmet V. Headlee was a fourth-generation physician.
You want to talk about roots? His great-grandfather, Elisha Headlee, was a Civil War surgeon. His grandfather and his father both practiced medicine in Teague, up in Freestone County.
So when Emmet came into the world in Teague in 1900, the stethoscope might as well have been waiting in the crib. But here's where the story gets interesting early — and I mean early. Emmet was thirteen years old when he pulled a friend from drowning.
Thirteen. The Carnegie Hero Fund took notice, awarded him a stipend for that act of courage, and that money helped pay for his college courses. A boy saves a life, and that act of bravery quietly sets the rest of his life in motion.
You couldn't write it better if you tried. He earned his Bachelor's degree from the University of Texas in 1922, then his Doctor of Medicine degree from Baylor University College of Medicine in 1926. While he was interning at St.
Paul's Sanitarium in Dallas, he met a woman named Marie Sprusil — born in 1900, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, a registered nurse and a certified nurse-anesthetist. They married. And then, in November of 1926, this young couple pointed themselves west and drove into Odessa.
Odessa at that moment numbered about four hundred and fifty people. And Dr. Headlee?
He was the only doctor in town. The only one. His first office was set up in the back of a drugstore.
Their first home doubled as a medical facility — the front rooms served as examination and operating rooms. Marie, trained as a nurse-anesthetist, was right there beside him. This wasn't a practice.
This was a frontier operation, and they were running it out of their own house. Then came the Great Depression, and West Texas felt it like everywhere else — maybe more so. People needed a doctor but didn't have cash.
Dr. Headlee accepted animals as payment in lieu of cash. Near this very site, the Headlees bought land to keep those animals.
That detail right there tells you everything you need to know about the man. He became Ector County health officer. He served patients from throughout the region, not just Odessa.
In 1934, he opened a seven-bed hospital. That hospital expanded, kept growin', until 1949, when Medical Center Hospital opened — and Dr. Headlee was on staff.
That same year, 1949, he and Marie built a house here. Marie was no background figure in this story. In 1957, in recognition of her long years of dedicated service in church and charitable work, she was named the first lady of Odessa.
That is a title that means something, and she had earned every syllable of it. Dr. Headlee stayed active in community, school, and medical organizations until his death in 1965.
A man born in a small town in Freestone County, the son and grandson and great-grandson of healers, who rode into a town of four hundred and fifty people with his wife and his medical bag — and helped build what has become a major medical center in West Texas. Four generations of medicine. One boy who jumped into the water when it counted.
And a town that still carries what they built.
What the marker says
Emmet V. Headlee was a fourth-generation physician; his great-grandfather, Elisha Headlee, was a civil war surgeon. His grandfather and father practiced medicine in Teague (Freestone Co.), and Emmet was born there in 1900. At age thirteen, he saved a friend from drowning, an act which earned a stipend from the Carnegie Hero Fund which helped pay for his college courses. He earned a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas in 1922 and his Doctor of Medicine degree from Baylor University College of Medicine in 1926. While interning at St. Paul’s Sanitarium in Dallas, Dr. Headlee met and married Marie Sprusil (b. 1900), a native of Cleveland, Ohio, and a registered nurse and certified nurse-anesthetist. The young couple arrived in Odessa in nov. 1926, and Dr. Headlee became the only doctor in a town which then numbered about 450 people. His first office was in the back of a drugstore, and the front rooms of the Headlees’ first home were examination and operating rooms. Dr. Headlee became Ector County health officer and also served patients from throughout the region. He opened a seven-bed hospital in 1934, which expanded before 1949, when Medical Center Hospital opened with Dr. Headlee on staff. Near this site, the Headlees bought land for the animals which Dr. Headlee accepted as payment in lieu of cash during the Great Depression. In 1949, the couple built a house here. In 1957, in recognition of her long years of dedicated service in church and charitable work, Marie Deadlee was named “first lady of Odessa.” The civic-minded Dr. Headlee was active in community, school and medical organizations until his death in 1965. Emmet and Marie Headlee provided great leadership to odessa, which has become a major medical center in West Texas.