Leonard Coleman’s father, Solon Douglas Coleman, was a true Texan—dedicated, passionate, and rhetorical. Easily moved both to anger and to tenderness; he laughed and yelled a great deal and had little talent for patience. Neither was he easily informed. His mind was too active to be an accurate receiver. A boisterous, boyish, hearty man he enjoyed the foibles of others, but also found entertainment in his own idiosyncrasies. His outsized personality and his extraordinary tenderness drew people to him.

“My Dad was quick to heat up, quick to cool down,” Leonard said.” When he did chew out a nurse or anyone, he usually apologized later in person or with flowers, with a gift or a card. Just about everybody knew that lightning and thunder would be followed by a rainbow and bright sunshine. He was also tender and loving.”

Immediately after graduating from high school Leonard wanted to join the Navy so that he could contribute to the World War II effort. Leonard’s mother was reluctant to sign the papers, but his father supported Leonard’s decision. He said, “Son, your mom will probably cry and may become hysterical, but don’t worry. I can handle her.”

            When the time arrived for Leonard to depart for basic training his mother and father went with him to the train station. As they waited for the train, Leonard talked with his mother. When the train arrived, Leonard began looking around for his father. Just as the train was about to leave, Leonard found his father behind a post “crying his eyes out.”

After returning from the war, Leonard attended Southern Methodist University. Leonard tells this story about a weekend trip to visit his father and mother:

I brought a friend down from SMU. He watched my father operate on a patient while I assisted on the case. My father was very meticulous and always emphasized the importance of aseptic conditions. During those times the operating rooms were not air-conditioned and we kept the windows open for ventilation. The window screens sometimes failed to retard unwanted intruders. On this occasion, a fly invaded our surgical sanctuary. The fly kept buzzing around my head. I automatically reached up to shoo the fly away and touched my head with my gloved hand. My dad began screaming about my contaminating myself and proceeded to chew me out so severely that my friend feared for my life. After I rescrubbed and re-gowned, we finished the surgery. That night we had a fried chicken dinner. Everybody had settled down and we were enjoying ourselves when my Dad noticed my friend was using a knife and fork to cut and eat the chicken. He said: “Son, don’t worry about using a knife and fork. This is fried chicken. You can eat it with your hands.” My friend replied, “I‘m afraid that if I don’t use my knife and fork, I might contaminate myself.”

Dr. S. D. Coleman graduated from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston in 1924. The following day, June 2, he married Miss Mabelle Outlar in a ceremony performed at the Wharton First Baptist Church. After a brief wedding trip to Mineola in a Model-T Ford, the newlyweds moved to Temple where he began a six-month internship at Scott & White Medical Center. The Colemans then moved to New Orleans where he completed a one-year surgical residency at Charity Hospital.    

Due to a long-standing relationship with Massey Moore, Dr. and Mrs. Coleman selected Navasota as their home and in late 1925 Dr. S. D. Coleman opened his practice in partnership with Dr. Walter Wilson. His first office was above the John D. Quinn Drug Store.

Dr. Coleman soon became aware of the need for a Navasota Hospital. At the time there existed no hospitals in the Brazos Valley, requiring the ill and infirm to travel to Waco, Temple or Houston for hospitalization. In 1929, he borrowed $20,000—which at that time was a fortune—to build the Brazos Valley Sanitarium, a hospital that included 18 rooms and 12 patient beds. The original building still stands today on South Judson Street as a testament to Dr. S. D. Coleman’s vision and the town’s commitment of providing quality health care for its residents.

That same year Dr. Coleman persuaded Dr. H. L. Stewart, who had been a medical school roommate, to close his practice in Longview and move to Navasota where he became the area’s first eye-ear-nose-and throat specialist. Soon after that Dr. E. T. Ketchum joined the group.

In 1947 the partners opened their new clinic, The Medical Center, on Washington Avenue. In 1955 Dr. Coleman’s son-in-law, Dr. W. S. Conkling, a pediatrician, joined the group. Dr. S. D. Coleman’s son, Leonard, a surgeon, joined the partnership in 1959.

In 1962 severe arteriosclerosis mandated that Dr. S. D. Coleman’s right leg be amputated above the knee. While the wound was healing, he wrapped a big red ribbon around the stump and toured Grimes County seeking support for a $500,000 bond issue to expand the hospital. The expansion was approved by an overwhelming majority. The new Grimes Memorial Hospital had its formal opening in early December, 1963.

Despite his physical handicap, Dr. Coleman mastered the art of driving a car and learned to maneuver his wheelchair so that he was able to see patients at the Medical Center and visit patients in the hospital and convalescent home. He socialized with friends around town and made several trips abroad following his surgery.  His stamina and good cheer inspired patients and friends alike. He continued to practice medicine right up to his final illness. He died on May 16, 1968 at age 67 from a myocardial infarction.

During his funeral service Reverend Alvis Coleman, a nephew, read a poem, The Physician’s Prayer that Dr. Coleman had mounted over his desk:

Lord, who on earth didst minister to those who helpless lay, In pain and weakness, hear me now, as unto Thee I pray. Give to mine eyes the power to see the hidden source of ill. Give to my hand the healing touch, the throb of pain to still. Grant that mine ears be swift to hear the cry of those in pain. Give to my tongue the words that bring comfort and strength again. Fill Thou my heart with tenderness, my brain with wisdom true, and when in weariness I sink strengthen Thou me anew. So in Thy footsteps may I tread, strong in Thy strength always. So may I do Thy blessed work and praise Thee day by day.

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