Dr. Pardue served the Vivian and Oil City communities for 60 years. He was born 12-Oct-1884 to Benjamin Wesley and Nancy Jane Hester Pardue in Downsville, Louisiana.
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| Seated: Nancy holding Jim, Benjamin holding Tom; Standing (L-R): Nettie, Cleveland, Fred, Howard |
In the 1900 census, the family was reported to be living in Ward 5 of Lincoln, Parish, Louisiana. Interestingly, he had another given name, apparently later dropped, as he was listed as Grover Cleveland; presumably for President Grover Cleveland, though born a month before the 1984 presidential election. Also of interest regarding the origin of his given name, his other middle name Hendrick(s) was that of Cleveland's running mate that year.
He attended public school in Downsville, After a year at Springfield Normal College, he earned a teaching certificate and taught in a one-room school near his family home. It was there that he decided to pursue becoming a doctor and received a degree from the Louisville (KY) Medical College in 1908.
1908 Louisville Medical College Digital Collection
Below, the office of Dr. Pardue's older brother, Howard Hamilton Pardue in Vivian, Louisiana. A 1902 graduate of Grant University (a predecessor of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga), he set up practice there shortly afterward. Given their overlap of tenure in the town by several years and Cleve's newness to the profession, this is likely where the younger Pardue initially practiced.
A September 1909 newspaper social column noted him attending a moonlight picnic and hayride in the company of a Miss Annie Huckabay.
Times 05-Sep-1909, Page 13
Times 05-Sep-1909, Page 13
He was mentioned in the most unusual story of another Vivian physician, Dr. George M. Huckabay, killing barber Tom Morris, in a dispute over a child's haircut. Another account clarifies the dispute was more about the treatment the child had received.
Monroe (LA) News-Star 24-May-1912, Page 4
Off topic but to finish the story above: No official verdict was found, however a newspaper article published while the jury was in deliberation stated acquittal was expected, as Morris had attempted to draw first. On Dr. Huckabay's defense team was former Louisiana governor Newton C. Blanchard. Any relationship between the doctor and Dr. Pardue's aforementioned picnic date Annie, while likely couldn't be confirmed. She was the daughter of Harold Hunter "Mack" Huckabay, a prominent local planter who served at different times in both the state legislature, and on the Caddo Parish poliice jury.
In January 1914 it was announced that Dr. Pardue wed the former Ester "Essie" Marston of Coushatta.
Shreveport Times 04-Jan-1914, Page 10
Essie was a 1910 graduate of Louisiana State Normal School (now Northwestern State University).
LSN Quarterly Bulletin - October 1916, Page 55
Listed among buyers of a new Ford automobile in 1915.
Times 03-Nov-1915, Page 5
A May 1917 newspaper article about Vivian as an up-and-coming community, identified Dr. Pardue as the town's health officer.
In an incident where the doctor became the patient, in Jun 1918 it was reported Dr. Pardue was transported to an unnamed Shreveport hospital due to an attack of appendicitis. Post operative reports disclosed he was recovering nicely (and obviously returned to practice).
His World War I draft registration:
Mrs. Pardue was among a large group of north Caddo Parish residents signing a petition for the prohibition of manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors. The national movement of which this was part led to adoption of the 18th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution.
The March 1920 Quarterly Bulletin of the Louisiana State Board of Health identified him as Vivian's health officer.
In addition to practicing medicine, Dr. Pardue was involved in other business activities around Vivian, for example serving as vice president of the local bank.
He also served a similar position in a grocery business and was presumably an investor in both.
In June 1932 he was called to attend Trees shooting victim Robert Moorhead, already dead upon his arrival. Brother Joe had fired the fatal shot during a dispute.
Later that year he was listed among Caddo Parish doctors examining and giving small pox vaccinations to school children.
Below, Pardue brothers are shown in an undated photo (guessing 1930s +/-) taken in their original home of Downsville, LA.
Ancestry.com Contributor
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| L-R: Taylor, Benjamin, Archie, Thomas, and Cleve |
In March 1937 it was announced that work had begun on a new medical office and clinic west of Vivian's town hall.
Son Cleve Jr. graduated from Tulane University School of Medicine in June 1938. Once he began practicing in Vivian, many patients referred to Cleve Sr. as "Old Dr. Pardue" and him as "Young Dr. Pardue" even when he had reached his 50s.
Dr. Pardue was called to an area near McLeod, Texas the following month, where he pronounced two sisters dead of drowning in an earthen pit used to supply water to nearby oil leases.
Below, a photo of then recently married daughter Barbara. She had earlier graduated from Louisiana Polytechnic Institute (now Louisiana Tech University) in 1938.
Other daughter Patricia graduated from LSU in 1942. She married Raphael J. La Bauve, Jr.; also an LSU alum and then Lieutenant in the U. S. Army, in 1943.
During the war it was reported that Cleve Jr. was promoted to captain in the U. S. Army. During the war, first wife Lela Belle assisted Cleve Sr. in his practice.
Dr. Pardue was mentioned in the case of 19 year-old Mrs. Nell Seeger of nearby Hosston, whose baby girl he had delivered a month earlier.
Nell was brought to him, half of her body paralyzed, and he had her taken to Highland Sanitarium in Shreveport. The wife of an army corporal, she was eventually transported by military plane to New Orleans to be treated by a brain specialist at the Touro Infirmary. Given a slim chance for survival, a later report stated her condition had improved steadily from the paralysis that had been caused by brain inflammation. She may well be living today, as she survived her husband Tom, who passed in 2013.
In 1947, at age 62 he decided to retire, then set up a "temporary" practice in Oil City, that at the time did not have a doctor. That turned out to be a 21-year run, most of the time in an office in the back of Warren's Drug Store.
In 1947, at age 62 he decided to retire, then set up a "temporary" practice in Oil City, that at the time did not have a doctor. That turned out to be a 21-year run, most of the time in an office in the back of Warren's Drug Store.
In another sad tale of a child's death, Dr. Pardue was noted as acting deputy coroner investigating 1950 incident of a young boy playing cowboy who accidentally hanged himself..
Brother, Dr. Howard Hamilton Pardue, Sr., who had preceded Dr. Parduce in practicing medicine in Vivian, died in December 1962.
He did not appear in the press much in later years, however the 07-Jul-1968 Shreveport Times featured Dr. Pardue (AKA "The Whistling Doctor") three-page article in its Sunday Magazine. Among the highlights of his career, he estimated he had delivered over 5,000 babies.
Below, three generations of Dr. Cleve Pardues - Sr., Jr, and III. Another son of Cleve Jr., Timothy Jon, also became a physician.
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| Three generations of Cleve Pardues - Sr., Jr., and III; all physicians |
Dr. Pardue passed away 01-Apr-1974 and is interred in the Vivian (LA) Cemetery.
Post Script
An announcement for Cleve III's OB-GYN practice in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Mrs. Pardue passed away 30-Mar-1986 at the age of 94 years. She is buried next to her husband in the Vivian Cemetery.
Daughter Barbara Marston Pardue Henderson died in 1989, while Cleve Jr. passed away in July 1990.
Cleve III appearing below in a medical advertisement in 2012.
The last living member of Dr. Pardue's immediate family, daughter Patricia, passed in 2016.
Remembering "Old" Doctor Pardue
Cleveland Bagley - Dr. Pardue, Sr. came out to our house on the bayou (Belcher-Oil City Road) and delivered me April 15, 1940. I was named after him.
Marilyn Parker Cox - I can remember Dr. Pardue, Sr. being in the back of Warrens Drug store, and he always charged "a buck" for an office visit and if you got a shot it was "a buck & 2 bits", as he always said. House calls were usually $3.00.
Alma Deem - This was a sweet little old doctor. Loved to go to him. His office was over Mrs Warren’s drug store in Oil City. He may have had an office in Vivian as well, But did not ever go anywhere but Oil City to see him.
Mary Haugen - I remember his (Cleve Jr.'s) daddy in Oil City. My mother took the kids to him for everything - Old Dr. Pardue. Then after the war was over young Dr. Pardue came to Vivian to practice and soon after that his daddy retired in Oil City. My mother liked both doctors a lot.
Anna Moore - Dr. Pardue took care of us when I was a kid. He was a lovely man. When my parents asked how much we owed, he would say "'Bout a buck." What a rare person.
John Ridge - Around the the fifth or sixth grade (early 1960s) I came down with a severe cold or the flu and was bedridden, missing an entire week of school. After a few days of no improvement, my mother requested a house visit. In preparation she tidied up my room while I cleaned up and put on fresh pajamas. He came in with his bag and, while whistling under his breath took my temperature and listened to my chest. Then he told my mom he would make up some medicine (he filled his own prescriptions) that she could pick up later that day. I must have gotten better as I'm still here.
Brenda Durmon Smith - The snow this week (February 2015) reminds me of a time when I was a little girl living just down from Barnett's store. There came a good snow and we took boxes to slide down a hill behind our house. Two days later I was a miserable human being. I was covered in poison ivy! Head to toe! So, here we go up to Mrs. Warrens pharmacy to see old Dr. Pardue (that is how we referred to him).
I remember him looking me over as I stood in front of my mother. He was sitting on a short rolling stool with a stub of a cigar in his mouth. He took out the cigar, looked at my mom and said,"if it wasn't the dead of winter I'd swear to god she was eat up in poison ivy!" He then stuck the cigar back in his mouth and rolled over to the medicine cabinet. Of course, I knew that meant a shot, or two, and started bawling.
