2024-02-13 08:00:00
Dr. Gloria Jackson Bacon, 86, a retired physician and former elected official who championed health equity for the underserved, passed away in New Orleans Friday, February 9, surrounded by her family. Dr. Bacon was born on September 21, 1937, in New Orleans, Louisiana to Henry Johnson, a postal clerk, and Vina V. Johnson (Johnson), a schoolteacher. She is preceded in death by her parents, her husband, Retired BG Frank C. Bacon, and her brother, Henry D. Johnson. Bacon was proud of her family’s history and traditions, and often attributed her success to her parents’ belief in her and the goals they set for her. Their guidance propelled and guided her to give back to the community as an advocate on health care issues for the medically underserved. Her often-unorthodox approach was centered on collaboration to achieve success in issues affecting the quality of life of persons of low income and/or from disadvantaged backgrounds. Bacon graduated from Thomy Lafon Elementary School and McDonough 35 High School. In 1958, she earned a B.S. degree from Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans. She attended the Howard University School of Medicine, completing two years of medical school training, before enlisting the help of U.S. Sen. Everett Dirksen (IL) to transfer to the University of Illinois School of Medicine, to join her first husband, Herbert Jackson, following having their first child. In 1962, She earned her M.D. degree. In 1984, she earned a Master’s in Public Health from University of Illinois School of Public Health, and in 2006 at 69 years old, she earned a Master’s in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago. In 1964, then Dr. Gloria Jackson worked part-time at a public health clinic at Altgeld Gardens, an impoverished community on Chicago’s far South Side. After having her second child in 1965, she found that primary care permitted her to find a better balance between work and family and joined the clinic full-time. By 1970, she had become so engrossed in her patients’ unmet needs and so appalled by the lack of quality public health services available that she founded a new medical clinic. The Clinic at Altgeld, Inc. (now TCA Health) would provide care to thousands of patients annually. As Founder and Executive Medical Director, Dr. Bacon guided The Clinic at Altgeld to have an enormous impact in the area – most notably was a significant drop in the community’s infant mortality from 50.2 deaths per thousand in 1970 to 9.2 by 1990. More than 30 years later, in 1997, following the opening of a new state-of-the-art facility, Dr. Bacon retired as Medical Director, continuing as a consultant until 2001. Satisfied that the clinic would continue to provide critical health care, she was eager to expand her service to the community beyond traditional health care to help the children she cared for succeed in life. “I saw that the medicine that people came to the doctor for was only a little piece of the care they needed,” Jackson Bacon recalled as she retired. “They had so many other needs.” She also served in other clinical and administrative activities in Chicago, including as Medical Director at MetroCare; advisor to an Infant Mortality Child Survival project funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Medical Director of Health Planning and Community Programs for the Health and Hospitals Governing Commission of Cook County; Director of the Medical-Psychiatric Department of the Illinois Drug Abuse Program; and as a Clinic Physician for the Chicago Board of Health and Chief of Staff of Provident Hospital. In 1980, she was remarried to Retired BG Frank Bacon. She began to pursue other interests, most notably, she became only the second black woman to be elected to statewide office in Illinois when she was elected to the University of Illinois Board of Trustees, lighting the path for U.S. Senator Carol Moseley-Braun (IL), the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Senate. In 1992, she returned to singing, a lifelong passion that played an important role in her early development. She performed in many recitals and concerts throughout her youth and college years, but the demands of medical school and then medical practice had to take precedence. She was a featured soloist at Chicago Symphony Hall, ETA Theater and numerous churches and other venues. In 2007, she came out of retirement to return to New Orleans, answering the call for physicians in the followingmath of Hurricane Katrina. She served as an ambulatory care services physician at LSU Hospitals Health Care Services Division until 2010. Dr. Bacon earned awards from Alumni of the Year, Xavier University (2018), Purpose Prize (2007); Pioneers in Medicine 2004 from the Cook County Physicians Association; The History Makers, Inc. Award in Medicine (2002); Alumni of the Year, University of Illinois College of Medicine (1997); and Chicagoan of the Year (1995), Chicago Magazine, among many others. She was an active member of professional and civic organizations, including the Louisiana Medical Society/Orleans Parish Medical Society; University of Illinois Alumni Association; National Medical Association; Cook County Physicians Association; American Academy of Medical Directors (past president); and American Academy of Family Physicians (charter member). She served on numerous boards, including Pullman Bank, The Chicago Network; Provident Hospital & Medical Center; Fisk University Board of Trustees; Illinois Family Planning Council, and Congregational Church of Park Manor Board of Trustees. Dr. Bacon is survived by two daughters: Constance Jackson and Judith Jackson Fossett (Clayton), of New Orleans; three stepsons: Philip Bacon, Geoffrey Bacon, Stuart Bacon; a grandson: Alden Fossett; her sister, Joyce Johnson Burton; her niece, Valerie Burton; her nephew, Theodore Burton, Jr.; and a host of cousins. Funeral Service is to be held Saturday, February 17, 2024, at St. John Institutional Missionary Baptist Church at 10:00 am. Visitation is from 9:00 am -10:00 am. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made in her memory to Xavier University of Louisiana for their new medical school. Arrangements by D.W. Rhodes Funeral Home, 3933 Washington Avenue. Please visit www.rhodesfuneral.com to sign the guestbook.
Published by The Times-Picayune from Feb. 13 to Feb. 16, 2024.
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