When Dr. Jean Staton knew what she wanted, that was what she went after. It didn’t matter if it hadn’t been done before, there was no need to try to talk her out of it, her mind was made up.
“She just didn’t take ‘No’ for an answer,” said Monti Staton, her daughter-in-law who lives in Stone Mountain. “You could count on her to do what she felt was right, or in the best interest of her patients.”
As a physician in Decatur, and beyond, for more than 34 years, Dr. Staton earned the respect of her patients because she knew and respected them, said Annette Loudermilk, a nurse who often worked with her.
“Her patients loved her,” Ms. Loudermilk said. “And I do believe she loved them, too.”
Jean Stewart Staton of Avondale Estates, died May 6 at her home from complications associated with lung cancer. She was 86. A funeral service is planned for 3 p.m., Saturday at A.S. Turner & Sons, Decatur, which is also in charge of arrangements. Her body will be cremated and her ashes will be placed near her parents’ graves in North Carolina.
Dr. Staton was born and raised in Gastonia, N.C., and came to Atlanta to attend Agnes Scott. She graduated in 1946 with a general science degree and then went to Emory University to pursue a master’s degree in neuroanatomy, before going on to medical school. She was one of two women to graduate in the Emory Medical School class of 1953.
When she was honored by Agnes Scott in 2006, she said her undergraduate experience gave her “the confidence to feel comfortable entering and competing in what was then a man’s world,” according to a then-news release from the school.
Dr. Staton practiced general internal medicine in Decatur from 1957 to 1991, during which time she also served as a clinical professor of medicine at Emory, her family said.
When she retired from private practice, she went on to become the chief of medicine at Wesley Woods Geriatric Hospital. She left Wesley Woods, and became the medical director for the volunteer Physicians' Care Clinic in DeKalb County.
“She was always about helping people,” said her son, Stewart Staton, of Stone Mountain. “She was really involved in volunteering in her field and she wanted to help her patients.”
But not only did she help patients, she was a teacher to others in the medical field, said Mary Kay Kreisle, of Atlanta.
“She was a great teacher,” she said. “I was a nurse coming from a largely administrative background, and she encouraged me and taught me every time she had a chance. She was always saying, ‘Come on you can do this,’ and I did it, thanks to her.”
In addition to her son, Dr. Staton is also survived by her brothers James Stewart and Thomas Stewart, both of Gastonia; and one granddaughter.
About the Author
