In Honor of Decades of Doctoring

              The Times Shreveport-Bossier
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15 E
In honor of decades of doctoring
By JUDY PACE
Of The Times Staff
In the old days. Dr. David Clarke
Swearingen rode a horse to make house
calls in Plain Dealing.
Many a time did he spend the night at
a house where he was delivering a baby
or treating a seriously ill patient.
Sometimes he might make his rounds
in a Model T Ford, and his payment was
likely to be cucumbers by the bushel
full, beans, corn or a hog.
He still owns two acres of land he was
given for his services.
Those were the days when doctors
made house calls and had general prac-tices,
before the days of fancy medi-cines
and specialties.
Now 73 and retired, Swearingen
himself eventually limited his practice
to ophthalmology.
He was honored Friday for his con-tributions
to medicine and for helping
improve the quality of life in Louisiana.
He is being recognized by the
Shreveport Medical Society and Aux-iliary
in connection with the annual
Doctors' Day celebration, which is
March 30.
Swearingen was born jn Springfield.
Mo., of Dutch ancestry and moved to
Shreveport at the age of 5. He gradu-ated
from the Old Hope Street High
School in 1926 and attended Centenary
College for two years before going to
Tulane University for pre-medical
schooling. He graduated with honors
from Tulane University School of Medi-cine.
He says he just sort of drifted into
medicine. He was just sitting around
talking with a bunch of friends one day
and said, "I believe I'm going to be a
doctor."
When he quit college briefly and his
father put him to work at a filling
station, he recalls with a laugh, he
decided maybe he would go back to
school.
Later, as an intern at Charity Hospi-tal
in Shreveport, he earned $10 a
month and worked around the clock
many a time.
He began his private practice in Plain
Dealing in 1933 and there met his wife,
Alverne, who decided to marry him
after he took out her tonsils. The fee for
that operation was $30.
After several years as a reserve of-ficer
on duty in the Civilian Conserva-tion
Corps camps and time as a doctor
in the U.S. Army, Swearingen returned
to Shreveport in 1946. where he prac-ticed
medicine until 1979.
Through the years, the Swearingen
family became known as a family of
doctors. David practiced with his
brother, Paul, and his nephew, Paul Jr.
His son David Jr. is an ophthalmologist
in the U.S. Navy and son Philip is a local
internist.
For Swearingen, a review of over 50
years of doctoring means reminiscing
about changes in medicine.
Doctors today, he said, know so much
more and have so much more medicine
at their disposal.
In the old days, doctors used what-ever
they had and carried their supplies
in the traditional black bag — which
held hypodermic needles, surgical in-struments
and a miscellany of other
things.
Swearingen would also carry a
change of clothes because there was a
good chance the case was going to hold
him up.
His wife says she would often get
word that he had gone out into the
country and didn't know when he would
be back. In those days, she said, she got
to be good at canning things he had
received as payment.
Once, she remembers, his horse
threw him and he broke some ribs.
And, Mrs. Swearingen said, every
time she thought they could finally
afford a new living room suite or some
other long-awaited item, he would come
home and say he had bought something
for the office.
"We didn't have a lot of money in
those days," Swearingen recalled.
But even though those days were
hard, he said, it was "a hell of a lot of
fun."
When he returned to Shreveport to
practice, he still would head for Natchi-toches
two days a week and Plain
Dealing one day a week to handle pa-tients.
An avid golfer, Swearingen proudly
displays trophies from the hobby. They
include two for holes-in-one in 1974 and
1981. He has served on the board of East
Ridge Country Club, where he and his
wife still play golf.
In addition, Swearingen also enjoys
fishing at Toldeo Bend.
He has been active in St. Mark's
Episcopal Church, Caddo Lodge and
179-24 A.M. Scottish Rite. He is a 32nd
degree Mason. He has also been active
in the American Medical Association
and Shreveport Medical Society. He
was a member of the Schumpert Medi-cal
Center staff and was president of
the Ark-La-Tex O.O. Society, a pro-fessional
organization.
"He just sort of drifted into
medicine. He was just sitting
around talking with a bunch of
friends one day and said, ' /
believe I'm going to be a doc-tor.'
"
Dr. Swearingen as a young man (far right)
and today as he reminisces about his years
as a physician
Class of doctors from Charity Hospital
These doctors, including Dr. David Swearingen, were interns and house
physicians at Shreveport's Charity Hospital in the early 1930s. The doctors
were identified in a newspaper article at the time with their home towns.
They are (front row, left to right) Jack Birdwell, Shreveport; A.B. Cairns,
Houston; John Couret, New Orleans; Hollis Rogers, Winnsboro; Vance
Murry, Ripley, Miss.; C. Bruce Reid, Dennison, Texas; and M.M. Stephens,
Gilmer, Texas. On the back row are (left to right) A.Y. Jennings, Abilene,
Texas; James Wright, Lufkin, Texas; Joe E. Barham, Oak Ridge; William
Stewart, Alabama; Sam G. Khoury, Shreveport; Swearingen; and Ray
Carter, Dallas.
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