Individual Details

Marriage

Married by Olie T Brown pastor First Baptist Church, Rotan, Texas

Death

Dr. J. Harold Cheek was one of the first surgeons in the nation to focus exclusively on breast surgery, and the first to do so in Dallas.
Dr. Cheek, 90, died Jan. 25 of complications of pneumonia at Mother Frances Hospital in Tyler.
A memorial service was Jan. 28 in Hideaway, Texas.
Dr. Cheek stayed on boards and committees at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas after retiring in 1996 and moving to East Texas. He traveled to Dallas nearly every week.
"Dr. Cheek epitomized the finest in American medicine," said Joel Allison, Baylor Health Care System president and chief executive officer. "He was a giant of a man."
Dr. Cheek was a disciplined man who passed his work ethic on to his four daughters, said daughter Lynn Newsom of Dallas.
Born in Eldorado, Okla., Dr. Cheek lived in Oklahoma and New Mexico but grew up primarily in West Texas. He didn't live in a home with indoor plumbing until he was 10. His family struggled to make ends meet during the Great Depression.
Dr. Cheek graduated from high school in Claude, Texas, and attended Montezuma Baptist College in Las Vegas, N.M., where students could earn their room and board. He hopped freight trains to get to and from his family's home, he said in an oral history interview for Baylor Medical Center Proceedings, a quarterly journal.
Dr. Cheek's mother moved to Lubbock so he would have a place to live while attending what is now Texas Tech University. Dr. Cheek's father traveled, seeking work to support his family. Dr. Cheek worked at a grocery while attending Texas Tech part time.
When he was 22, he had saved enough to attend Texas Tech full time.
After completing his undergraduate studies, he attended Baylor University College of Medicine in Dallas for two years, before that medical school moved to Houston.
He stayed in Dallas to complete medical studies at the new Southwestern Medical Foundation School of Medicine, now UT Southwestern Medical Center.
Dr. Cheek's surgery residency was interrupted when he was called to duty in 1946. He served in the Army at military hospitals and clinics in Utah, Texas and New Mexico.
After completing two years of military service, Dr. Cheek returned to Dallas, where he started his surgery practice in 1951.
He developed a special interest in diseases of the breast and breast surgery, inspired by two of his professors, Dr. Eric E. Muirhead, a surgical pathologist, and Dr. H. Walton Cochran, a surgeon with a primary interest in breast surgery.
Dr. Cheek practiced surgery for more than 20 years before limiting his practice to breast surgery. His last general surgery was to repair a hernia for Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry. He preformed the procedure at the request of a friend, team physician Marvin Knight, Dr. Cheek said in his oral history.
He was a member of Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas, but he had attended Hide-A-Way Lake Community Church near his home in recent years.
He was president of the Baylor University Medical Center staff in 1979, president of the Dallas County chapter of the American Cancer Society in 1969-70 and president of the Texas division of the American Cancer Society in 1977-78.
He received the cancer society's Sword of Hope Award in 1970 and its Certificate of Merit in 1972, the Susan G. Komen Foundation's Taittinger Award of Distinction in 1985, and the Wings of Eagles award from the Baylor Health Care System Foundation in 1999.
In addition to his daughters, Dr. Cheek is survived by his wife, Anna Lou Cheek, who is moving back to Dallas; two other daughters, Mary Jane Van Zandt of Ruston, La., and Macy Chionsini of San Angelo, Texas; and three grandchildren.

Burial

Birth: Jun. 1, 1917
Death: Jan. 25, 2008
Burial: Restland Memorial Park, Dallas, Dallas County, Texas, USA
Plot: Garden of Memories