Lt. Oliver Austin's body was never found.
Dr. Jean served as a Baptist Missionary in the Belgian Congo from 1945 to 1951. While there, she met and married a co-worker and widower, thirty-four year old Dr. Philip Austin (no relation to her 1st husband) of Herne Bay, County Kent, England, on August 4, 1949 at Sims Chapel in Leopoldville, Belgian Congo, Africa. Shortly after the birth of their first child on June 6, 1950, they left the Congo, and relocated to Alexandria, VA in 1951, crossing the ocean on the ship "Bastogne". They then set up a private medical practice in Alexandria. Upon retirement in 1976, the Austins moved to White Earth, MN where they served as physicians on the White Earth Indian Reservation. Upon full retirement, they enjoyed living on Marco Island, FL and on Tulaby Lake at Waubun. MN.
Dr. Jean was preceded in death by her parents; her sister, Mary Meader; her 1st husband, Dr. Oliver Austin; her 2nd husband, Dr. Phillip Austin; and her son, Dr. Philip Oliver Austin. She is survived by one daughter, Mary Jean (Michael) Smith; and four sons, David (Louiza) Austin; William Austin; Christopher (Karen) Austin; and Paul Austin. Also by nine grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren.
A celebration of life service to be held at Goodland Baptist Church in Goodland, FL.
The following are two newspaper articles concerning Dr. Jean:
Winnipeg, Man.(Canadian Press) -- "U. S. Army Plane Crashes Into Submerged Reef. A United States Army plane carrying medical supplies on a mercy flight to epidemic-stricken Eskimos on Hudson Bay crashed July 5, killing the pilot Second Lt. Robert Hyde of ShermanCounty, Texas. Lt. Oliver Austin, Trenton, N. J., U.S. Medical Corps was as listed missing. The plane crashed into a submerged reef after taking off from Churchill, 1,000 miles north of here. The wreckage was found four days later. The plane was carrying medical supplies to Eskimos and Indians at Eskimo Point, 160 miles north of the northern port of Churchill. Hyde's body was found in the wrecked plane, but there was no trace of Lt. Austin."
Washington Post, July 1951. Dr Jean Austin, a native of Vassar, Michigan, now in Alexandria, VA as chief resident of the Alexandria Hospital. She presides over a staff of ten foreign interns and residents, one of them being her husband, Dr. Philip Austin, a native of Kent, England. She is in the third year of residency, he in his first.
In the Belgian Congo where they worked together at three American hospitals of the Northern Baptist Convention, she was the senior doctor. That was because her husband, a surgeon and ordained minister for the British Missionary Society was technically "only a visitor". They were married in 1949 in tiny Sims Chapel, the first Protestant Church of the region. The addition of another doctor to her staff was welcome. Before he arrived, she was the only physician for three hospitals in and area of 400 square miles.
In one year, during which he aided her for four months, she performed nearly one-thousand operations, seven hundred of them involving major surgery. Moreover, she was responsible for the care of sixteen thousand out-patients, two hundred to three hundred babies in clinics, eighty prenatal cases and one hundred and five lepers.
She once performed sixty-four major operations in a week while sitting on a stool because she had a sprained ankle. At night she worked with the aid of flashlights because there was no electricity. Her husband changed that just before they left. He built a modern operating room with florescent lighting. He installed most of the equipment himself, and was plumber, electrician, carpenter, surgeon, and preacher all at once according to his wife.
The Austins, now in Alexandria, are no longer treating victims of lions and crocodiles. They no longer have to contend with witch doctors who accused the white doctors of harming infants. They now have a very modern facility and much more skilled assistance at the operating table. But, they're still working together, and... she's still the "boss"".
Lt. Oliver Austin's body was never found.
Dr. Jean served as a Baptist Missionary in the Belgian Congo from 1945 to 1951. While there, she met and married a co-worker and widower, thirty-four year old Dr. Philip Austin (no relation to her 1st husband) of Herne Bay, County Kent, England, on August 4, 1949 at Sims Chapel in Leopoldville, Belgian Congo, Africa. Shortly after the birth of their first child on June 6, 1950, they left the Congo, and relocated to Alexandria, VA in 1951, crossing the ocean on the ship "Bastogne". They then set up a private medical practice in Alexandria. Upon retirement in 1976, the Austins moved to White Earth, MN where they served as physicians on the White Earth Indian Reservation. Upon full retirement, they enjoyed living on Marco Island, FL and on Tulaby Lake at Waubun. MN.
Dr. Jean was preceded in death by her parents; her sister, Mary Meader; her 1st husband, Dr. Oliver Austin; her 2nd husband, Dr. Phillip Austin; and her son, Dr. Philip Oliver Austin. She is survived by one daughter, Mary Jean (Michael) Smith; and four sons, David (Louiza) Austin; William Austin; Christopher (Karen) Austin; and Paul Austin. Also by nine grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren.
A celebration of life service to be held at Goodland Baptist Church in Goodland, FL.
The following are two newspaper articles concerning Dr. Jean:
Winnipeg, Man.(Canadian Press) -- "U. S. Army Plane Crashes Into Submerged Reef. A United States Army plane carrying medical supplies on a mercy flight to epidemic-stricken Eskimos on Hudson Bay crashed July 5, killing the pilot Second Lt. Robert Hyde of ShermanCounty, Texas. Lt. Oliver Austin, Trenton, N. J., U.S. Medical Corps was as listed missing. The plane crashed into a submerged reef after taking off from Churchill, 1,000 miles north of here. The wreckage was found four days later. The plane was carrying medical supplies to Eskimos and Indians at Eskimo Point, 160 miles north of the northern port of Churchill. Hyde's body was found in the wrecked plane, but there was no trace of Lt. Austin."
Washington Post, July 1951. Dr Jean Austin, a native of Vassar, Michigan, now in Alexandria, VA as chief resident of the Alexandria Hospital. She presides over a staff of ten foreign interns and residents, one of them being her husband, Dr. Philip Austin, a native of Kent, England. She is in the third year of residency, he in his first.
In the Belgian Congo where they worked together at three American hospitals of the Northern Baptist Convention, she was the senior doctor. That was because her husband, a surgeon and ordained minister for the British Missionary Society was technically "only a visitor". They were married in 1949 in tiny Sims Chapel, the first Protestant Church of the region. The addition of another doctor to her staff was welcome. Before he arrived, she was the only physician for three hospitals in and area of 400 square miles.
In one year, during which he aided her for four months, she performed nearly one-thousand operations, seven hundred of them involving major surgery. Moreover, she was responsible for the care of sixteen thousand out-patients, two hundred to three hundred babies in clinics, eighty prenatal cases and one hundred and five lepers.
She once performed sixty-four major operations in a week while sitting on a stool because she had a sprained ankle. At night she worked with the aid of flashlights because there was no electricity. Her husband changed that just before they left. He built a modern operating room with florescent lighting. He installed most of the equipment himself, and was plumber, electrician, carpenter, surgeon, and preacher all at once according to his wife.
The Austins, now in Alexandria, are no longer treating victims of lions and crocodiles. They no longer have to contend with witch doctors who accused the white doctors of harming infants. They now have a very modern facility and much more skilled assistance at the operating table. But, they're still working together, and... she's still the "boss"".
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