Dr. Raymond Mills Spivy, obstetrician and gynecologist with offices in the University Club building at St. Louis, was born December 25, 1880, in Henderson, Texas. His father, Judge William Wright Spivy, was a native of Alabama and belonged to one of the old southern families represented in Virginia, North Carolina and Alabama. The ancestral line is traced back to Aaron Spivy who came from Ireland prior to the Revolutionary war, in which he participated, being wounded in the battle of Saratoga. He originally settled in Isle of Wight county, Virginia. Judge Spivy removed to Texas with his widowed mother during his youthful days and acquired his education under the direction of his mother’s brother, Judge William Wright Morris, a distinguished jurist of the Lone Star state and at a prior date a prominent figure in political affairs in Alabama. Judge Spivy prepared for the bar and won distinction and prominence as a lawyer and as district judge, his district comprising Henderson and four or five other counties. He was also an intimate friend and legal associate of the late Governor Hogg of Texas. He died December 7, 1889, at the age of fortyone years. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Sarah Ann Fleming, was a native of Georgia and was of Scotch-Irish descent. She now makes her home in Little Rock, Arkansas. By her marriage she became the mother of six children, three sons and three daughters.
Dr. Spivy, who was the fourth in order of birth in the family, was educated in the public and high schools of Henderson, Texas, and in the University of Texas, before entering upon preparation for the practice of medicine as a student in Washington University of St. Louis, which conferred upon him the M. D. degree in 1907. He afterward served for a year as an interne in the St. Louis City Hospital and then went abroad for further study, pursuing post-graduate work for a year in Berlin, Germany, and London, England. He afterward became interne in St. Luke’s Hospital at St. Louis in 1908 and in 1909-10 was chief physician of the St. Louis City Infirmary. Later he was active obstetrician to the St. Louis Maternity Hospital and associate in gynecology in the Barnard Free Skin Hospital, filling these positions from 1910 to the present time. He is also visiting surgeon of the St. Louis City Hospital and surgeon to the out-patients of the Washington University Dispensary. His private practice, too, is of an extensive and important character and study and experience have constantly developed his talents and his skill, making him an able and successful physician of St. Louis. He belongs to the St. Louis, Missouri State and American Medical Associations and at all times keeps in touch with the progressive thought of the profession.
On the 21st of April, 1920, Dr. Spivy was married in St. Louis to Miss Mary Lawrence Eaton, a native of this city and a daughter of Francis G. and Ada (Tyler) Eaton, representatives of an old and prominent St. Louis family that has resided in Vandeventer place for many years. There Mrs. Spivy was married and there her parents still reside.
During the World war Dr. Spivy served on the surgical staff of Base Hospital Unit, No. 21, in Rouen, France. He was commissioned a captain and was honorably discharged March 7, 1919. Dr. Spivy belongs to the University Club of St. Louis and also to the Beta Theta and Sigma Nu, two college fraternities. He is a member of the Westminster Presbyterian church and his political endorsement is given to the democratic party. He is a man of studious nature and finds his chief diversion in scientific reading and in investigation. He is thus constantly adding to his knowledge of both a general and professional character and association with Dr. Spivy means expansion and elevation.