Dr. Elaine Gertrude Fichter Mickey

Elaine Gertrude Fichter Mickey began her life on March 12, 1920, in West Hazelton, Pennsylvania as the third child of parents, who were both children of immigrants, her father parents from Germany and her mother from Ireland. Her mother died less than a year after Elaine birth. This tragedy shaped the rest of Elaine life, in many ways making her the strong, fierce, determined, and disciplined woman she became. Her own harsh childhood made her forever sympathetic to little people. She excelled in school, attending Maryville College in Knoxville, Tennessee, where she majored in Chemistry and was the captain of the debate team and the queen of the May. After a brief stent as a secretary, she was encouraged by her boss to apply to medical school. At a time when many medical schools would not even accept an application from a woman, she applied and was accepted to Duke University Medical School, graduating as one of the three women in the class of 1946. She accepted a residency in Pediatrics. During a rotation in Denver, Colorado, she met her husband, Joe Mickey, on a blind date. They were married in Denver on May 28, 1948. The newlyweds practiced medicine first in the small town of Sterling, Colorado. When Joe decided to train as a specialist in Obstetrics and Gynecology, they moved first to New York, and then to New Orleans where Joe completed his training and Elaine worked as part of the teaching staff at LSU Medical School. Dr. Mickey also taught at the Medical School post training, and it was during this time that their two sons, Bruce and John, were born. With their third child on the way, they decided that although they loved New Orleans, they did not want to continue to work in the university system nor did they want to raise their family there. After a period of deliberation, they moved to Monroe, Louisiana, where their third child, Jane, was born. Their medical practices flourished, and their family grew with the addition of another daughter, Dawn, in 1962. Joe Mickey tragically died of a heart attack while the couple were jogging on the Ouachita River levee on a cold November day in 1979. Elaine never remarried. She continued to practice well into her seventies, before retiring to enjoy her eleven grandchildren. In 2010, at the age of 90, she decided to move to Dallas to spend her last years there at a retirement community close to Bruce and Dawn and their families. She died at her Dallas home on June 25, 2019, surrounded by her family. Her legacy of self discipline, daily exercise, and unshrinking devotion to her work and her family will long be remembered. Her grandchildren, David Mickey and Claire Mickey, will carry the torch of the medicine into the next generation as physicians. She is survived by her son Bruce Mickey, his wife, Barbara, their son Steven and his wife, Allison, her son John and his wife, Jan and their daughter Claire and sons, David and Jake, her daughter, Jane Campbell, her husband, Gus and her children, Caroline Brazeel, Sean Rose Brazeel, and Stephanie Brazeel, and her daughter Dawn, her former husband, Nick Rizos, and their son Stratis and his wife Megan ( and their son Stratis), daughter Joanne, and son Max. A gathering of friends and family will be held from 5:00 P.M. until 7:00 P.M., Friday, July 12, 2019, at Kilpatrick Funeral Homes of Monroe. A service of remembrance for Dr. Elaine Fichter Mickey will be held at 10:00 A.M., Saturday, July 13, 2019, at Covenant Presbyterian Church with Pastor John Mabray officiating. A committal will take place at Mulhearn Memorial Park cemetery under the direction of Kilpatrick Funeral Homes of Monroe. The family request that anyone having a personal remembrance of her that they would like included in our memory book please email to Jane at [email protected] or send to her office at 102 Thomas Road, suite 117, West Monroe, Louisiana, 71291.Memorials may be made in Elaine memory to St. Jude Children Research Hospital, 5001 St. Jude Place, Memphis, Tennessee 38105 or to the Louisiana Baptist Children Home and Family Ministries specifically to The Doyle Hamilton Endowment Fund, P.O. Box 4196, Monroe, Louisiana 71211.