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[[image: black and white photograph of Dr. Susan Smith]]

Dr. Susan Smith was married to Reverend William Guillard McKinney who was about 20 years her senior. 4  He died in 1895 after fathering two children: Anna McKinney Holly-Carty, a school teacher in Brooklyn for many years; and Reverend William Sylvanus McKinney, a Protestant Episcopal priest. 

At the time of the dedication of the Dr. Susan Smith McKinney Junior High School there were 22 direct descendants of Dr. McKinney. William S. McKinney, Jr. of Brooklyn and St. Albans is 74 years of age and was a high school teacher at Thomas Edison Vocational in Queens, New York and at the East New York High School in Brooklyn. His wife, Blanche, retired from elementary school teaching after 31 years of service.

The 22 descendants - all living - include a chemical engineer, seven school teachers, a commercial artist, a piano teacher, a well known actress, an assistant principal, a dentist (Dr. William McKinney of Jamaica), a trial attorney (Charles McKinney, Esq. of Brooklyn), a tennis coach and student, two students at Harvard, a student each at Brown University and Northeastern University, two high school students, and one elementary school pupil.

At the time of her husband's death, Dr. McKinney was 48 years of age. She then married U.S. Army Chaplain Theophilus G. Steward of the 24th Infantry of Fort Missoula in Montana and later at Fort Niobrara, Nebraska. She was licensed and practiced medicine in both of these states. Shortly before Chaplain Steward's retirement she went to Ohio in 1898 and became resident physician and a member of the faculty of Wilberforce University in Xenia, Ohio. Upon his retirement from the Army he joined her there on the faculty as a teacher of history.

Dr. McKinney-Steward remained at Wilberforce until her death in 1918. Her body was brought back to Brooklyn and interred at Greenwood Cemetery. Chaplain Steward survived her for a few years at Wilberforce. There were not offspring from this second marriage.

Dr. Susan McKinney-Steward devoted 48 years to an outstanding medical career. She was honored as a physician, organizer with foresight, churchwoman, community leader, musician, educator, publicist, humanitarian and heroine. In June 1914 President Scarborough of Wilberforce University wrote: "Dr. Susan McKinney-Steward, our resident physician for a number of years, has been faithful in looking after the young people in need of medical attention. I am very glad to commend her and her services, and to say that to have such a woman connected with the institution, where there is a large attendance of girls, is indispensable". 5

After her death, as part of her eulogy, the Green County (Ohio) Statistics, printed ". . . She was one of the best known women of her race, and for years exerted a remarkable influence for good, in and about Wilberforce, where she had been practicing her profession since 1898. . . ." 5

To Dr. McKinney-Steward's family one highlight of her career has been recorded as a dramatic and commemorative episode. It was a housecall by train and ship from Ohio to Haiti in 1897 to deliver her first grandson, Louis Holly.

Now after 104 years Brooklyn, her native city, has written its epitaph — the Dr. Susan Smith McKinney Junior High School.

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