Franklin, Ernest
FRANKLIN, III, Dr. Ernest Washington
Dr. Ernest Washington Franklin, III, 87, of Atlanta, Georgia, died on September 2, 2023, after a long battle with prostate cancer. He was attended by his cherished wife, Joyce, and died in his beloved Highlands, North Carolina home.
Ernest was born on March 19, 1936, in Charlotte, North Carolina, the second child of Dr. Ernest Washington Franklin, Jr. and Tempe Williams Franklin.
After graduating from the Asheville School in 1954, he earned an AB in Art and Archaeology at Princeton University in 1958. Originally, he wanted to be a museum curator, but his mother persuaded him to become a physician like his father. Ernest graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1962, and completed his two-year residency in Surgery at Barnes Hospital, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He returned to Harvard Medical School's Boston Hospital for Women for his residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Subsequently, he was in the 1967-69 pioneering fellowship in Gynecologic Oncology and Gynecologic Radiation Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Ernest joined the faculty at Emery University School of Medicine in the department of Gynecology and Obstetrics from 1969 to 1974. He practiced surgery at St. Joseph's Hospital from 1974 to 1997, and upon his retirement created an eponymous award for the nurses' compassionate care of patients. He firmly believed that without the nurses' professionalism, skill, acumen, and compassion, he never would have been able to treat so many women with cancer.
Dr. Franklin was active in Atlanta's medical community, having been the Director of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology at Emery University School of Medicine, Deputy Chief of Gynecology at Grady Memorial Hospital, Member of the Executive Committee on the Southwest Oncology Group, and a Fellow in the Society of Gynecological Oncologists, American College of Surgeons, and Medical Association of Georgia. Despite spending much of his career in private practice, Dr. Franklin published 40 peer-reviewed articles in journals varied as Gynecologic Oncology to the New England Journal of Medicine.
His children were worried he would be miserable after being forced to retire from surgery by a devastating repetitive stress injury of both hands, but he surprised them by returning to build a happy life in Highlands, a town his parents loved and first brought him to 70 years ago. A lifelong gardener, he had time to add golf and croquet to his hobbies, in which he became the first Croquet Champion at Highlands Falls Country Club. In addition to his practice of surgery, Ernest had been an Elder at Mount Paran Church of God, Trustee at the Bascom Museum for Visual Arts in Highlands, and President of the Atlanta Ballet.
Dr. Franklin is survived by his wife of 25 years, Joyce; his sister, Ann Franklin Maxwell of Charlotte, NC; her two sons and their wives, Christopher Andrew Bartlett Franklin (Olivia) and Dr. Washington Ernest Franklin, IV (Mai); and their sons, Ernest Washington Franklin, V, Henry Tran Franklin, and Robert Bartlett Franklin. In addition, he is survived by his stepson and his wife, Clayton L. Parker (Nichole); and their sons, Brody L. Parker and Hudson B. Parker.
A memorial service will be held at Mount Paran Church of God at 2055 Mt. Paran Road on September 19, 2023, at 2 PM, and he will be interred in Highlands. The family requests no flowers or donations on behalf of Dr. Franklin.
