Tommy Brown

Thomas Alan "Tommy" Brown (Shreveport cardiologis)
Born	February 14, 1956 Seminole, Oklahoma Resident of Shreveport, Louisiana
Died	December 29, 2017 (aged 61) Dallas, Texas
Spouse	Diane Peppers Brown (divorced) Two children: Craig Brown Kimberly Brown Luminais
Religion	United Methodist

Thomas Alan Brown, known as Tommy Brown (February 14, 1956 – December 29, 2017), was a well-known cardiologist and sports businessman from Shreveport, Louisiana, who himself succumbed to heart disease at the age of sixty-one.

Background[edit]

Born in Seminole in central Oklahoma, he was the only son of four children of Talmadge "Tad" and Marjorie "Pug" Brown. The family returned to its hometown in Converse in DeSoto Parish south of Shreveport, where they lived in a mobile home at the end of a dirt road. Brown graduated in 1974 from Converse High School and excelled in sports but felt destined to become a physician. He graduated magna cum laude in 1978 from Louisiana State University in Shreveport, at which he was "Mr. LSUS" in 1977 and the "LSUS Student of the Decade." At the LSU School of Medicine in Shreveport, he was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alphahonor medical society. Four years later, Dr. Brown graduated with honors and was accepted into his internship and residency in internal medicine. In 1984, he entered into a cardiology fellowship training at the LSU center in Shreveport.^[1]

Career[edit]

While working in Shreveport, he helped to staff on weekends the DeSoto General Hospital in Mansfield, Louisiana. His devotion to his small town roots led to his being honored in 2005 as "Louisiana Rural Practitioner of the Year." According to his obituary, he was known for his "tireless work ethic and warm bedside manner ... rare breed of small-town country boy, skillful hands, and sharp intellect who was filled with compassion towards his fellow man. He had a killer smile that melted hearts and soothed fears."^[1]

Brown began his cardiology practice in 1987. He was a member of numerous professional organizations including the  American Medical Association, American Heart Association, the American College of Physicians, the American College of Cardiology, the Society for Cardiac Angiography and Interventions, and the Louisiana and Shreveport medical societies. He was the chief of cardiology and director of the catherization laboratory of the HCA Highland Hospital, since Christus Medical Center, and the managing partner of Ark-La-Tex Cardiology, which he established in 1991 after a previous partnership suddenly dissolved.^[1] 

Outside of his medical duties, Dr. Brown was at his 2,000-acre Heartland 10/10 Ranch in Scottsville in Harrison County near Marshall in east Texas, a type of Jurassic Park which he began as a weekend retreat for his family and since operated with his son, Craig Brown. Named for its -pound bass and 10-point bucks, Heartland hosts bass fishing and deer hunting. The genetics employed by the Browns, however, has produced even heavier bass and larger bucks than originally proposed.^[2] 

Family and death[edit]

Dr. Brown was divorced from Diane Peppers Brown of Covington in St. Tammany Parish. In addition to their son, Craig of Shreveport, the Browns have a daughter, Kimberly Luminais and husband, Keith, of Mandeville, also in St. Tammany Parish. Dr. Brown still called his children "baby" even as they became adults.^[3] He had two granddaughters and two surviving sisters.^[1] 

Brown died at Baylor Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. Though he had been ill only for a few weeks, he had sustained a virus in his heart several years earlier which proved resistant to treatment. In the last few years of his practice, he had retired from surgery but continued to treat heart patients by non-surgical means.^[2] Services were held on January 4, 2018, at the First United Methodist Church in downtown Shreveport, with pastor Pat Day officiating. A memorial service will be held at a later date at Fellowship Baptist Church in the Oak Grove community in Converse, Louisiana. The obituary does not mention a place of interment.^[1] 

On April 24, 2018, Dr. Brown's friends held a memorial dinner in his honor at the East Ridge Country Club in Shreveport. Three hundred twenty-five of his friends raised enough money to establish a local medical scholarship in Brown's. His long-term physician-partner at Ark-La-Tex Cardiology, Dr. Corky Davis, said that Brown cursed while giving dictation and "in front of patients, pastors, but everyone loved him."^[4] Attesting to Brown's generosity, Max Sharp recalled how the physician gave him $30,000 years ago to establish a business: “There was no contract. He just did it because he believed I was going to be successful,” Sharp said of his friend.^[4]

References[edit]