George Perry Rains, M.D. (1872-1955)

Dr. George Perry Rains of Marshall, Texas died at his home on September 19, 1955, of coronary thrombosis.  He was born on September 18, 1872 in Marshall, the son of Major Mercer Rains and Nancy Texas Arnett Rains.  His early education was obtained in a private school in Marshall, and he received his bachelor of arts degree from the University of Texas in 1893. 

For his medical training, he chose the University of Texas Medical Branch, from which he graduated in 1896.  He obtained another medical degree at the University of Pennsylvania the following year.  After serving his internship in the John Sealy Hospital in Galveston, Dr. Rains served as house physician at the Texas and Pacific Hospital in Marshall for a short time, then began his private practice there.  He refreshed his medical knowledge periodically by taking courses at the New York Postgraduate Medical School.

Dr. Rains was elected an honorary member of the Texas Medical Association in 1954, after having been a member through the Harrison County Medical Society throughout his career.  He was president of the county society in 1937.  He was also a member of the Reserve Officers' Association, the Texas State Armory Board, the Military Surgeons Association, Phi Delta Theta social fraternity, the Masonic Lodge and the Elks. 

Dr. Rains was a member of the board of directors of the Marshall National Bank, the Kahn Memorial Hospital, the Harrison County Red Cross and the Marshall and Sabine Pass Railroad.  He served as vice-president of the hospital staff and was a trustee of the College of Marshall and its successor, East Texas Baptist College.  He was treasurer of the local USO during World War II, and was city commissioner at one time.  He was chairman of the board and president of the Rains and Talley Funeral Home and the Rains Insurance Company.  He served as a deacon and then an honorary deacon in the First Baptist Church, which named its new education building, the Rains Children's Building, in his honor.

Dr. Rains' military career began in 1887, when he enlisted in the Army at the age of 15, and covered a period of 49 years.  He rose from the rank of private to major general and retired in 1936 with the rank of brevet lieutenant.  During World War I, he was a colonel in the Third Texas Infantry, and commanding officer successively of the Thirty-Sixth Military Police and Trains, the Sixty-First Pioneer Infantry, and of Camp Sheridan in Alabama.  After World War I, he commanded the One Hundred and Forty-Fourth Infantry, the Seventy-Second Infantry Brigade and the Thirty-Sixth Division.  He was honorary life president of the Thirty-Sixth Division Association and was the first commander of the Smiley-Summers Legion Post in Marshall.

Dr. Rains married Miss Norma Pitts in Marshall on April 26, 1899.  They had no children.  Mrs. Rains died on February 16, 1953.  Survivors are three nephews and two nieces.

== == == published in the Texas State Journal of Medicine in December 1955.  Transcriber is not a relative and has no further information regarding this family.