By Wesley Harris
They healed at a time when every house call they made challenged a male-dominated profession.
In the early years of the twentieth century, when Ruston was still finding its footing as an educational and agricultural center, medicine in North Louisiana was overwhelmingly the purview of men. Into that landscape stepped Dr. Amanda Taylor, likely the first women to practice medicine in Ruston and Lincoln Parish. She was followed by Dr. Willie Perry Simpson.
What we know about Dr. Taylor comes in fragments—exact dates and biographical details remain elusive—but the significance of her role is unmistakable. While her husband, Dr. Walter Edgar Taylor, served as the fourth president of Louisiana Industrial Institute (now Louisiana Tech) from 1904 to 1906, Amanda was carving out a reputation of her own. She was often described as resembling a “farm woman” more than a traditional physician, but she was a woman of modern firsts—famously owning the first automobile in Ruston.
The Taylor household was famously light on actual medicine, but heavy on character. When the couple adopted a baby boy, Amanda gave him the striking name Worth Ransom, simply because she believed he was “worth ransoming.” The Taylors later adopted a second child.
Her medical philosophy was equally unique; she was a minimalist who did not believe in overmedication. Instead, she became known locally for her “famous pink pills” and a strict adherence to natural healing.
Local lore tells of her husband Edgar bringing home a bottle of castor oil, only to be reprimanded so severely by Amanda that he lied and claimed the medication was for “shining his shoes.”
Edgar Taylor’s profession as an educator meant moves were frequent and after teaching biology and serving as president at Tech, he and Amanda moved to San Marcos where he worked at Southwest Texas State Normal School, now called Texas State University.
If Amanda Taylor represents the earliest step forward, Dr. Willie Perry Simpson represents the continuation—and strengthening—of that path. Arriving from Illinois around 1900, Dr. Simpson was a trained osteopath who was regarded as one of the most brilliant Biblical scholars in the parish.
While Taylor was known for her car and her pills, Dr. Simpson is remembered for her deep connection to the Louisiana Chautauqua and its mineral springs. She was a firm believer in the healing properties of the Chautauqua waters, often directing her patients to the wells north of town. She famously encouraged local children to wade in the springs to cure sores on their feet, bridging the gap between professional osteopathy and the natural “health tourism” that once defined Ruston’s identity.
Simpson raised two children, Perry and Eleanor, in Ruston and remained a steady, trusted presence in the lives of local families until her death. She is buried in Greenwood Cemetery.
To understand the importance of these two women, you have to understand the context. In the early 1900s, medical schools were only beginning to admit women in meaningful numbers. Rural communities often had limited access to trained physicians. And most significantly, cultural expectations placed women firmly outside professional roles.
And yet, in Ruston and Lincoln Parish, two women stepped into that space anyway. They were not novelty acts. They were working doctors who delivered babies, treated illnesses, and made decisions that mattered.
Neither Amanda Taylor nor Willie Perry Simpson left behind extensive biographies. But their impact is written in a different place—in the lives they touched and in the doors they helped open. Every woman who later practiced medicine in North Louisiana did so in a landscape that had already been changed—quietly but permanently—by these early pioneers.
They practiced before it was common. They persisted when it was difficult. And they proved, in the most practical way possible, that skill and calling—not gender—define a physician.
Ruston’s story is often told through institutions and well-documented figures. But sometimes, the most important chapters are carried by people whose records are incomplete, but whose influence is undeniable. Dr. Amanda Taylor and Dr. Willie Perry Simpson belong to that category. They did not just practice medicine; they helped redefine who could.
