Whiteville High School graduate becomes physician

By WALLYCE TODD
Staff Writer

It was December 1987, and the Whiteville High School cheerleaders were decked out in tuxedo tops and royal blue cummerbunds for the 2A state championship game. Latonya Brown was a junior, and she and the other teenage girls on the cheer team excitedly prepared for what would be a high school highlight…when the Wolfpack won the coveted North Carolina conference title.

Now, it’s December 2006 - nearly two decades after that significant school memory. Soon, Latonya – now with Puryear added to the end of her name – will be sending her oldest daughter, Kennedy, to school. There, the beautiful child with intelligence shining in her eyes will be creating her own memorable moments.

A few years afterwards, plans are for Payton Puryear, Latonya and husband Jerome’s youngest daughter, to do the same. This little girl is love personified, delighting in the giving and receiving of hugs and kisses.

But for now, Latonya is relishing her role as mom and wife. Oh, and also her role as a board certified internal and pulmonary doctor at Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, Ohio.

Yes, the former WHS cheerleader and senior class president has spent the ensuing years after her 1989 high school graduation becoming a specialized medical professional who emphasizes patient care and accurate diagnoses and treatment.

She treats people with health issues that are often intense, even those who are confronted with the transition between life and death. A dedicated doctor, she deals with all these issues complimented by a loving heart, a keen mind and caring hands.

Latonya’s husband is also a doctor (a neuroradiologist who specializes in body/vascular intervention), and the Puryear family is Latonya’s first priority. Simultaneously, the couple has dedicated their married life to the committed pursuit of a life that balances their professions with a healthy home life, as well.

She remarks that Dr. Ray Thigpen influenced her perception of family mixed with a medical career. Latonya worked for numerous four-week rotations with Thigpen while earning her MD.

“I think Dr. Thigpen is phenomenal. He was awesome to work with. His energy was contagious and it had to be for the hours he kept.

“He actually taught me a lot of non-medical things: it’s costly to become a physician if you don’t make family a priority as well,” says Latonya.

Thigpen also speaks highly of Dr. Brown-Puryear. He said when working with Latonya, “she was never late for our morning rounds. She was an outstanding student. She had what I call the three ‘good A’s’ of a successful physician: 1. Ability. 2. Affability. 3. Availability.”

He notes that Latonya had good book knowledge, good bedside care and good personality, and she was always available. Thigpen says he “absolutely” believes her patients are in excellent hands with her as their doctor.

As an African-American growing up in Columbus County, Latonya says: “For me, growing up, there wasn’t racial tension or black/white issues. Racial tension wasn’t something I was accustomed to dealing with in high school.”

This is not what she discovered at UNC-Chapel Hill as an undergrad in the early 90s.

She attended the university during a season when the “black cultural center” proposal was making national headlines.

“Racial tensions were very high when I went to Carolina. I’ve never been in such a racially charged place as when I went to Carolina.”

So when Latonya interviewed with the white male medical director of the radiologic sciences department as a college sophomore, her perception of the experience was not positive.

“The director was almost adversarial in the interview. He asked me, ‘Why would you even consider a career in medicine?’

“He kept asking me why I would choose radiologic science as a way into medical school (versus the more common degrees in chemistry or biology).

“In my mind (at the time), it was very pejorative,” Latonya says. “I left the interview thinking: “Who is he to make me question myself like that?’

“In retrospect, I think his intention was to make me question how much I wanted to become a physician by questioning why I wanted to take a difficult path. Radiologic science is very rigorous.

“But I didn’t know easy was always the answer; and I believed if it was worth it, then ‘easy’ wasn’t what I was looking for.”

Now a passionate physician, Latonya admits the racial tension she experienced in college “often made me stop and readjust about what side I was on.”

Her own experience within the university’s medical school program had a strong impact on her personal perceptions – even those she garnered at the initial interview with the white male medical department director.

“He challenged me in ways that I didn’t realize that he was challenging me,” Latonya states. “I realized later that the interview was difficult by design.

“That was the plan. It wasn’t supposed to be pleasant. He was weeding out the weak.”

A week and a half after the interview, Latonya became one of only about 10 students accepted each year into the radiologic sciences department at UNC-CH.

She continues: “I went in (to my degree program) thinking the director was an adversary. By the end of the program, he was one of my biggest allies.

“He was a tremendous support as I matriculated through the program. He wrote letters of recommendation for me. He always had an open ear.

“I think he made me realize that you can’t take things at face value. (I learned) that I determine what I become – no other person around me/us should have the power to do that … you determine what you become.”

Latonya notes that her constructive experiences with this director, as well as with Dr. Thigpen and others, “taught me that people who don’t look like you are not necessarily against you.”

She acknowledges that her life after Columbus County is being built upon the positive foundation she was given by her parents, Clemouth and Anne Brown. Before deciding on a medical career, Latonya had contemplated following the path many of her relatives had taken into professional education.

“I think I considered being a teacher most, because my dad was a teacher and he was always my hero,” she recalls. Yet, she realized “he always made it look so attractive because of his patience and passion – but it wasn’t my calling.”

Clemouth retired from Columbus County Schools after 30 years, but is still teaching at a charter school in Laurinburg. Anne will soon retire from Whiteville City Schools’ administrative office after a long career there.

Latonya says she and her siblings were “the children of privilege – not because we had a lot of material possessions, but because we had parents who were always there.

“My parents taught me the importance of family,” she continues. “When everything else was not O.K., you had your family. I actually think this fact has been more significant to me as an adult than as a child.

“When you’re a child, you’re very protected because it’s your parents who make sure that you have food and clothes and that you know the importance of being in church and believing in a Higher Power.

“Until you’ve gotten outside of your parents’ home, you can’t understand how difficult it is to maintain that kind of environment.”

The medical mom says: “My mom showed me it was O.K. to be a working (outside the home) mother. I didn’t feel she loved me any less because she worked outside the home.

“She always taught me that in the face of adversity you hold your head high.

“Both of my parents taught me that. That’s taken me much further than material possessions would have or will.”

Latonya has a message for the young generation growing up locally: “There’s life outside of Columbus County. It’s a wonderful place to grow up. It does not limit you to what you become, but actually should serve as a motivator.

“No matter where I go, Columbus County will always be home. I’ll always be thankful I grew up there.”