PARSONS, EDMUND BYRD (1864-1938). Edmund Byrd Parsons, surgeon and medical administrator, was born at Moscow, Texas, on November 21, 1864, the son of Edmund Cantrell Bethell and Marianna Caroline (Byrd) Parsons. He attended Moscow Masonic Institute and in 1885 received his M.D. degree from Tulane University. He married Bessie Morris in January 1894; they had two children. Parsons practiced medicine for several years in East Texas and became chief surgeon for the International-Great Northern Railroad at Palestine in 1917 and later chief surgeon for the Missouri Pacific lines of Texas and Louisiana. He served as a member of the Texas State Board of Health and as health officer for Palestine and Anderson counties. He was a Mason and a fellow of the American College of Surgeons. He died on March 13, 1938, and was buried in Palestine.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Texas State Journal of Medicine, May 1938. Who Was Who in America, Vol. 3.

Dorman H. Winfrey