Dr. Homer Luttrell

Dr. Homer B. Luttrell ( 8 Nov 1894 - 2 Jul 1992 ) came to Bramwell, WV, fresh out of Medical School with the intention of spending his summer assisting the resident physician, Dr. E.M. Tanner. Before the summer ended Dr. Tanner announced that he was moving to Bluefield, WV and was turning the practice over to Dr. Luttrell, in lieu of pay he had coming. Thus, Dr. Luttrell became the Company Doctor for Buckeye Coal and Coke Company, Booth-Bowen Coal Company and Caswell Creek ( Poca Fuel ), and anyone else who needed his medical services. He became the Town of Bramwell's physician in 1923. He remained the only doctor in Bramwell and the area until his departure in 1944. Luttrell was 29 years old when he came to Bramwell, having gotten a late start on his medical education. Many of us remember the office of Dr. Luttrell in Freeman that was located just behind the Caswell Creek Company Store. The house in which he had his office still stands in this location. It has been renovated over the years. It is also featured on this site and linked to this page.

He was born in Maxwell, California in 1894 and started grade school while living there. He finished grade school in Amissville, Virginia and worked two years on his father's farm because there was no high school there at that time. After graduating from high school at the age of twenty, he entered Richmond College (now Richmond Univ.), completed three years in pre-med. and enlisted in the Navy at the beginning of World War I. He was assigned to the U.S. Naval Hospital in Newport, Rhode Island. After the war ended he obtained an early release in order to continue his education at the Med. College of Virginia, receiving his medical degree in 1923.

While waiting for the local high school to be built, Homer worked on the family farm and played baseball in Amissville. Having finished high school in 1914 at the age of twenty he entertained thoughts of trying out for Major League Baseball.

Dr. Luttrell's days as a bachelor ended in 1929, when met one of Bramwell School's young teachers. He married Virginia Regland Painter. She was from Draper Valley in Virginia's Pulaski County. The marriage took place on 6 July 1929. Dr Lutrell and his new bride lived on Main Street in Bramwell in a house (See Picture Below), which later be came the Town Police Chief McKinley Stacey's house. The house is now owned by Athaline Nicewander. Fire did considerable damage to the house in 1943; while Dr. Luttrell and Virginia were attending a school play at Bramwell High School. The incident led Dr. Luttrell to make a decision to leave Bramwell; a decision he had been thinking about since coming to Bramwell. The "Company Doctor" was expected to provide 24-hour service at no extra charge with only 80-cents deducted from a miner's pay to cover the Doctor's cost. That was later raised to a dollar but the number of miners began to dwindle. It became hard for Dr. Luttrell to make a living. Additionally, since he was the only doctor in the area he could not leave town without providing another doctor and this was very difficult to do. Dr. Luttrell had delivered over 2000 babies during his 21 year stay in Historic Bramwell.

With his career as a 'Company Doctor' behind, Dr. Luttrell tried his hand at farming. But in 1945 he decided that he was too young to retire so he opened up offices in the Wallace Building in downtown Pulaski, Virginia. Over the next thirty years he served that community as a family physician: delivering at least another 1000 babies. He always cautioned parents against naming their babies after him, saying," Homer is a terrible name to inflict on a baby". Dr. Luttrell also became a pillar in his church and finally retired from his medical practice in 1976 at the age of 82. His wife, Virginia Painter Luttrell died in 1971 and he subsequently remarried in 1978 to Jane Oglesby Owen. Dr. Luttrell died on July 2, 1992 at the age of 97. He was buried in the Draper's Valley Presbyterian Church beside his first wife, Virginia. (Some Material from the "Bramwell Aristocrat" - Aug. 1993. Information updated by Dr. Luttrell's son, Richard Luttrell in 2003.)