Jackson Free Press

Dr. Mary Elizabeth Hawkins, a co-founder of Woman's Hospital (now Merit Health Woman's Hospital), passed away on April 7, 2015, at her home in Flora. She was buried at Garden of Memories in New Orleans, La., Friday, April 10. Reverend Ralph W. Hawkins, her nephew, officiated the service.

Mary Elizabeth Hawkins was born July 6, 1936, in New Orleans to Ralph and Pauline Hawkins. After graduating from Robert E. Lee Grammar School and Fourchette High School in New Orleans, she attended Mississippi State College for Women, now known as Mississippi University for Women, in Columbus, where she received a bachelor's degree in 1957. Hawkins went on to attend Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans in 1963, where she earned a medical degree. She interned and then did a residency at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, and later entered into private obstetrics and gynecology practice in Jackson.

Hawkins helped found Woman's Hospital and served as its chief of staff. She took a job as an OB/GYN assistant professor at UMMC after retiring from active practice in 1999 and also staffed the specialty clinics in the Jackson Medical Mall. She was a member of many local and national health societies, including the American College of OB/GYN.

For many years, Hawkins played bass in a band called Tom, Tom, Dave & Mary and participated in women's softball in Jackson. She was also known for caring for unwanted and special-needs dogs, as well as cats and horses, which she kept at her farm in Madison County.

Hawkins' surviving family includes her spouse, Jan Hart, as well as niece Sarah Ross and nephews Jack and Ralph Hawkins; great nieces Michelle Hawkins, Ainsley Ross and Ella Hawkins; and great nephews Andrew Ross, John Hawkins III and Lonnie Hawkins.