“We are certainly excited to have Dr. Barr on the board,” said MSCC President Dr. Glen Fenter. “She is a great proponent of higher education, and her roots run deep in Crittenden County. Dr. Barr previously served with distinction on our Foundation Board, and her insight and vision will be invaluable to our efforts to keep the institution moving forward.”
“My heart has always been in education, and I’m excited about the opportunity to serve on the board,” said Dr. Barr, the first African American physician to establish a medical practice in West Memphis. “I thoroughly believe in education because I know it does for most what a very few people do for themselves.”
“I have always been interested in education and taught at a four-year college before I went to medical school. I enjoyed teaching and liked seeing the students learn.”
Born in Birdeye (Cross County), Barr’s interest in education may also have something to do with genetics. Barr’s mother (Tennessee Minnie Viola Franklin Barr) was a school teacher, and her father (Zilmon Emmerson Barr) was an elementary school principal. “And my mother’s mother taught him, so it extends up the line,” she said.
After graduating from high school in Earle, Barr left the state to start her higher education at Grambling University.
“We didn’t have a college around this area when I was growing up,” she pointed out. “If you were from northeast Arkansas, you went somewhere else. I started at Grambling because I had a sister there. When she left, I went to Africa. After that, I went to Pine Bluff (then known as Arkansas AM&N) for the last year and a half of my college education.” Her picture can be found on the wall of fame at the University of Arkansas’s Science Building in Pine Bluff.
“I would love to have had a school in West Memphis. It would have saved my parents some money, which they didn’t have, and I would have been at home going to school. I guess a lot of kids like to leave home and go to school, but I would have been really happy to go to school 27 miles from home.”
Barr finished college at the age of 19 and completed her master’s degree from Atlanta University by age 23. She taught biology at Rosewald High School in Osceola in 1964-65 and at the Precious Blood Institute Junior College in Illinois from 1963 to 1967. She also taught biology at Philander Smith College in Little Rock for two years before enrolling at Meharry Medical College School of Medicine in Nashville. Her plan was to return to Crittenden County to practice medicine.
“It was an honor to be accepted into medical school, so I took it,” Barr said. “When I finished, I decided to come back home. I had been watching the ‘brain drain’ and didn’t want to be a part of it.”
“I have a lot of classmates from around Earle who just left and went to places like Chicago and Los Angeles. They’ve done exceedingly well in life, but they all left this area because there was nothing here for them to do. I decided before I left that I would come back home and practice medicine because there was nobody like me around here back then. There certainly weren’t any black female physicians. I’m happy to be close to home.”
Barr returned to eastern Arkansas in 1982 after completing her Internal Medicine residency at G.W. Hubbard Hospital.
A New York Life scholar and a member of the Beta Kappa Chi National Scientific Honor Society and the Sigma Xi Biologic Honorary Society, Barr currently serves as Medical Director at the West Memphis Intermediary Care Facility (Pathfinders, Inc.). She also chairs the board of directors of the East Arkansas Family Health Centers, which includes six facilities from Helena-West Helena to Blytheville.
“My hands are overflowing, but I don’t mind giving back to the community,” Barr said.
She is also giving back as a new member of the MSCC Board.
“I’ve been trying to talk with people that I think could benefit from coming to Mid-South Community College,” Barr said. “You can tell a big difference between a student who has had even one year of college and someone who has never gone. It’s a bigger difference than you can imagine.”
“I know some tractor drivers who work on farms, and they can beat anybody I know fixing a diesel engine, but they’ve never been to school. They’re so talented, and they already know the business. If they’ll go ahead and learn the academic end of it, they can get a certificate and make more money.”
Barr said MSCC provides great opportunities for the people of eastern Arkansas and beyond.
“When I first saw Mid-South Community College, I just thought it was wonderful,” she said. “I believe it’s about education, and I believe this college will continue to make a difference. I’d like to see the college grow. A lot of our students don’t have the opportunity to go to Pine Bluff or other places, but since there is a school right here, nearly within walking distance, they ought to use it.”
“If we can get students to come to college instead of looking for a job, which they’re not going to find with just a high school education unless they are prepared to do something, we can change individuals, families, and cultures.”
For information about life-changing education and training opportunities at the College, visit the campus at 2000 West Broadway in West Memphis, email admissions@midsouthcc.edu, call (870) 733-6728, or see the website at www.midsouthcc.edu.
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