Died 4 October 1991 | ||
Clara Arena Brawner (1929 - October 4, 1991) was the only African-American woman physician in Memphis, Tennessee in the mid-1950s. The daughter of a physician and a nurse, Brawner was born in Georgia and raised in Memphis and attended Manassas High School. She attended Spelman College for her undergraduate education, then moved to Nashville, Tennessee for medical school, graduating from Meharry Medical College in 1954. After a yearlong internship at her alma mater, Brawner returned to Memphis, where she practiced pediatrics at several hospitals and was active politically. She was the chair of the Collins Chapel Hospital pediatrics department and its scientific research department, worked for the Veterans' Administration, and was a leader in the Bluff City Medical Society, the Memphis Department of Public Health, and the Shelby County Department of Public Health. She was a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians, chaired the Family Practice Section of the National Medical Association, and received many community service awards. In 1989, she began studying theology, and continued her studies until her death in 1991.
Brawner's sister was Alpha Brawner, a renowned opera singer.