Ollie Louise Bryan, the first African-American woman to become a practicing dentist in the South, was born in Tennessee on December 28, 1871, the daughter of Anderson and Anna Louise (Smith) Bryant. As a young woman she entered Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, where she graduated in 1902, the first woman to do so. By 1906 she had married Dr. F. A. Bryan and moved to Dallas, Texas, where she began practicing as a dentist no later than 1909. She was an active participant in women's social clubs in Dallas, such as the Priscilla Art Club. She was also one of the seventeen women who organized the Royal Art and Charity Club. In 1916 she retired from dentistry and remained a housewife. After being widowed by her husband, she died on November 23, 1932, in Dallas.
Source: James Summerville, Educating Black Doctors: A History of Meharry Medical College (University, Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 1983). Vertical Files, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.
Source: James Summerville, Educating Black Doctors: A History of Meharry Medical College (University, Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 1983). Vertical Files, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.
Ollie Louise Bryan, the first African-American woman to become a practicing dentist in the South, was born in Tennessee on December 28, 1871, the daughter of Anderson and Anna Louise (Smith) Bryant. As a young woman she entered Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, where she graduated in 1902, the first woman to do so. By 1906 she had married Dr. F. A. Bryan and moved to Dallas, Texas, where she began practicing as a dentist no later than 1909. She was an active participant in women's social clubs in Dallas, such as the Priscilla Art Club. She was also one of the seventeen women who organized the Royal Art and Charity Club. In 1916 she retired from dentistry and remained a housewife. After being widowed by her husband, she died on November 23, 1932, in Dallas.
Source: James Summerville, Educating Black Doctors: A History of Meharry Medical College (University, Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 1983). Vertical Files, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.
Source: James Summerville, Educating Black Doctors: A History of Meharry Medical College (University, Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 1983). Vertical Files, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.
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