Otha Barnhill

A memorial service for Dr. Otha Allen Barnhill will be held at Elizabethtown Presbytrian Church at 11:00 am on Saturday, August 11, 2012. Dr. Barnhill died at home on Sunday, July 29, 2012, in Elizabethtown, NC, where he had lived with his wife, Nell Overton Barnhill, and their family for 57 years. He was 87. He is buried in Elizabethtown City Cemetery behind Old Trinity Methodist Church.

Dr. Barnhill was born February 17, 1925, near Stokes, North Carolina. He was the fourth and last child of Nolie and James Barnhill and was the only surviving member of that family. Dr. Barnhill began school in Stokes and graduated from Greenville High School in 1942. He met his future wife as a child and married her on March 24, 1944.



During World War II, Dr. Barnhill was drafted in September 1944 and served in the US Army in Germany and Austria as part of the 103rd Infantry Division and the Second Chemical Mortar Battalion.



Dr. Barnhill attended East Carolina Teachers College, now East Carolina University, in Greenville, NC, and received his BS in Medicine from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MD from the University of Virginia Medical School. The couple returned to North Carolina in 1953 and lived in Durham, where Dr. Barnhill did his residency at Watts Hospital. In 1955, the family moved to Elizabethtown, where Dr. Barnhill opened his medical practice, and the family became part of the community and members of the Elizabethtown Presbyterian Church. Dr. Barnhill practiced medicine in Bladen County for 45 years. He was known as a superb diagnostician and was one of the last of the true county doctors.



Dr. Barnhill was an amateur radio operator, W4HDE, and an avid fisherman throughout his life. Dr. and Mrs. Barnhill enjoyed dancing and were regular attendees at Merrymakers dance group and other dance gatherings for many years.



Dr. Barnhill is survived by his wife, Nell; two daughters, Donna Clark of Durham and Jennifer Barnhill of White Lake; one son, Allen Barnhill, and his wife, Kathy, of Houston, TX; five grandchildren: Martha Odom and her husband Tommy and Leslie Clark, all of Charlotte; Jason Clark of Rhinebeck, NY; and Julia Barnhill and Joshua Barnhill of Houston; by three great-grandchildren: Tripp, Annie, and Max Odom; and by a son-in-law, John Clark. In addition, Dr. Barnhill is survived by 28 nieces and nephews and dozens of their children and grandchildren.