Alfred Blalock, M.D.
Culloden, Monroe County, Georgia
Marker Inscription
Alfred Blalock, M.D. 1899-1964. World famous surgeon, teacher and research scientist was born in Culloden, Georgia April 5, 1899 and educated at Georgia Military College, the University of Georgia and Johns Hopkins Medical School. He completed his surgical training at Vanderbilt University where he served as Professor of Surgery 1928-1941. He was Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Johns Hopkins 1941-1963. His research on traumatic shock led to saving many lives in World War II. On November 29, 1944, he performed the first "blue baby" operation. This success was important in the development of modern heart surgery. In 1947 he demonstrated his operation in England and in France. Dr. Blalock was recognized as a world leader in surgery and was honored as president of many organizations including the American Surgical Association, American College of Surgeons, American Association for Thoracic Surgery, Society of Clinical Surgery and Society for Vascular Surgery. He was particularly proud of his election to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. However, his proudest achievement was the large number of famous surgical teachers and investigators he taught and trained. He died in Baltimore, Maryland on September 15, 1964. ERECTED 1996
Erected by Georgia Historical Commission
The Story
Born in Culloden, Georgia in 1899, Alfred Blalock rose to become one of the century's great surgeons. His research on traumatic shock saved countless lives during World War II, and on November 29, 1944 he performed the first 'blue baby' operation, a breakthrough that opened the era of modern heart surgery. As chairman of surgery at Johns Hopkins he trained a generation of leading surgeons — the achievement he prized above all his honors.
Why it matters
Blalock's blue-baby operation launched the field of cardiac surgery, and his teaching shaped American medicine for decades to come.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Alfred Blalock
Related events
- · First 'blue baby' operation, 1944
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Ballard-Hudson Senior High School
Macon, GA
Opened in 1949, Ballard-Hudson was for decades the only high school in Macon serving African American students in grades nine through twelve. It joined two lineages: Ballard High, descended from the Lewis High School founded by the American Missionary Association in 1868, and the public, industrial Hudson High. Reorganized in 1970 as Georgia's public schools were finally integrated by federal order, the school counts among its graduates the soul giant Otis Redding and rock-and-roll pioneer Little Richard.
Blountsville
Jones County, GA
Near here once stood Blountsville, a bustling stagecoach station and post office and home to many prominent Georgia families. It boasted Blountsville Academy, chartered in 1834, and a strong Baptist congregation, but the town suffered badly during the Civil War and eventually vanished from the map. Named for the pioneer Blount family, it survives now only in memory and this marker.
The Odessadale Elementary School and Black Self Help
Meriwether County, GA
In the segregated rural South, Black communities were routinely denied a fair share of public school funding, so they built and sustained their own institutions through pooled money, donated land, and volunteer labor. The Odessadale Elementary School stands in that tradition of Black self-help — a community in Meriwether County, Georgia, investing directly in the education of its children when the state would not. Decades later, alumni and neighbors organized to preserve the site and honor the school's place in local memory.
Camp McKenzie
Harris County, GA
This 350-acre tract served for roughly 75 years as the official camp of the local Boy Scout councils. Incorporated in 1921 under leaders like W. W. McKenzie and Fred H. Schomburg, the camp was expanded in 1965 when Cason J. Callaway, Jr. helped donate an adjacent tract named Camp Callaway. In the 1950s the council arranged for new camping grounds on West Point Lake, and the marker honors the men whose foresight gave generations of boys a place to learn and grow.