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American physician From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Connie Yerwood Conner (c. 1908 – June 11, 1991) was a Texas physician and the first black doctor to serve on the Texas Department of Health.
Conner was born in Victoria, Texas, and grew up in Austin.[1] Early on, she decided she wanted to be a doctor.[2] Conner's father was a physician and as a young woman, she and her sister Joyce Yerwood spent time with her father on the job.[3] In 1925, she graduated from Samuel Huston College.[1] Then Conner graduated cum laude from Meharry Medical College in 1933.[3] Conner's residency was in pediatrics, but she eventually became more interested in public health and so went back to school on scholarship to study at the University of Michigan.[2]
Conner became the first black woman to work for the Texas Department of Health in 1937.[4] She was involved in training midwives in East Texas and set up wellness clinics in rural Texas.[2] Conner was passed over for promotions regularly until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed.[4] She was the first black woman director of the Maternal and Child Health in Texas.[5] By the time she retired in 1977, she had been promoted to the director of health services in Texas.[2]
Conner died on June 11, 1991, in Austin.[1] She is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Austin, Texas.[3]
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