Dr. A. Banks Wilburn, engaged in the practice of surgery in St. Louis, was born in Audrain county, Missouri, February 19, 1874, a son of St. Clair and Susan (Coyle) Wilburn. The father was successfully engaged in farming and stock raising for many years in Audrain county but has now passed away. The family numbered fourteen children, nine sons and four daughters, of whom thirteen reached maturity. Dr. Wilburn was educated to the age of fourteen years in the district schools of his native county and spent that period of his life upon the home farm. The family then removed to Martinsburg and Dr. Wilburn entered the high school at Mexico, Missouri, which he attended until 1891, when he became a student in the Missouri Military Academy at Mexico, there pursuing his studies through three years. He afterward came to St. Louis and here entered the St. Louis Dental College, in which he was a student during the year 1894. In 1895 he matriculated in the dental and medical department of the Hospital College of Medicine at Louisville, Kentucky, and was graduated therefrom in July, 1896. Following his graduation he removed to Franklin county, Texas, where he engaged in the general practice of dentistry until 1897. Returning to St. Louis he became a student in the Barnes Medical College and won his M. D. degree in 1900. Through the succeeding three years he had charge of the surgical department under Dr. Pinckney French, a noted surgeon, and then entered upon private general practice in 1901, continuing therein until 1916, since which time he has specialized in surgery and diagnosis.
On the 17th of September, 1901, in St. Louis, Dr. Wilburn was married to Miss Estella Keller, a native of Illinois and a daughter of Charles and Emaroy (Scott) Keller. They have become the parents of one child, Emaroy, born August 18, 1903. Dr. Wilburn is a member of the Christian church, actively interested in its work, and his political allegiance is given to the democratic party. He finds diversion and recreation in outdoor life, but his is a busy existence and at all times he is actuated by the same spirit of determination and energy that prompted him to work his way through college and has guided his feet in the paths of successful professional achievement.