IN REMEMBRANCE
LONNIE HOWERTON, JR., MD 1928-2016
Surgery residency at U of L, when he was drafted into the military.
They spent the better part of the next two years on a military base
in Baumholder, Germany. This provided a wonderful opportunity
to travel post-war Europe, and kindled a passion for travel he kept
for the rest of his life. Friendships were also created in Germany
that lasted a lifetime.
Upon returning to the U.S. in 1957, he entered a Urology residency
at U of L. He then joined the private practice of his U of L mentor,
Dr. Robert Lich, in 1960. He retired from this practice in 1997. Dad
was closely involved in the Urology residency program his entire
career, and took great pride in the accomplishments of the residents.
L
onnie W. Howerton Jr., MD, died March 19, 2016. He was
born February 15, 1928, to Lonnie W. Howerton and Goldie
Mobley Howerton in a house his father built in Olive Hill,
KY. Dad was a star basketball player for the Olive Hill Comets
basketball team, and was selected 1st team All-State in 1944 when
the Comets won the 16th Region title, before losing to Harlan in
the state tournament semifinals. He graduated from Olive Hill High
School in 1945 as class valedictorian. Though offered Division 1
scholarships to play college basketball, he took the advice of his
older brother, Carl, to focus on his collegiate studies in order to
pursue a career in medicine. He received early admission to the
University of Louisville School of Medicine in 1947, the youngest
member of the class. He was selected to the Alpha Omega Alpha
Honor Medical Society as a junior student, and graduated in 1951.
He married fellow Olive Hill native Phyllis Kiser in 1950.
After a general internship at Detroit Receiving Hospital, they
returned to Olive Hill in 1952 and Dad established a true general
medical practice, rarely found in medicine today. He told stories
of delivering teenage primigravidas in isolated hollows while Mom
provided anesthesia with chloroform. He once even performed
a Scanzoni maneuver (now largely replaced by C-section) on an
occipitposterior presentation primigravida in her family home,
grandmothers intently watching his every move. He was sometimes
paid cash, other times in barter (food, chores, etc.). Mom and
Dad returned to Louisville in 1955 so Dad could begin a General
Dad was Clinical Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at U of L
and Chief of Pediatric Urology at Kosair Children's Hospital. He
staffed pro bono clinics at Kosair Children’s Home for many years.
He was co-author of 28 publications and co-author (with Drs. R.
Lich and M. Amin) of chapter 1 of Campbell's Urology through
1978. Along with Dr. Allen Lansing, he led a team that performed
the first kidney transplant in Kentucky. He developed a method of
ureteral reimplantation into the bladder to treat ureterovesical reflux
- known as Lich's operation, which is now practiced worldwide.
Dad was always a superb problem solver who brought fresh thinking to old problems. In 1968, he performed the first cutaneous ureterostomy in the world on a 4 year old child with a nonfunctional
bladder, who was undergoing a kidney transplant. This kidney
functioned for 35 years. In a 1974 lecture to the Innominate Society,
Dr. Lansing discussed the early days of kidney transplant at U of
L. He said:
"I must pay tribute there to the excellent early results that I think
we have to attribute primarily to Dr. Howerton. The biggest complication