By Tricia Neal, Commonwealth Journal, Somerset, Ky.
Jul. 5–“To have such an esteemed person in our midst here in Somerset is an honor — not necessarily because of his designation as a doctor, but because of the person he was, is, and his legacy will continue to attest to long after he is gone.”
Karen Shepherd, a longtime friend, spoke those words of the beloved Dr. Richard “Dick” Weddle earlier this year as plans were being made for a celebration in honor of Weddle’s 96th birthday.
On Thursday, the physician — who never seemed to notice that he was too old to go to work every day — passed away after a brief illness.
He is survived by his wife, Estalene “Bitsy” Weddle — with whom he had celebrated a 67th anniversary just two weeks ago — three children, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
A few years ago, Dr. Weddle told a reporter he couldn’t recall how or when he decided he wanted to be a physician. But the choice was obviously a good one for him. He became one of the most dedicated, respected, and well-liked doctors in the Somerset area during his lifetime.
He kept his own office open until 1993. Then he became the medical coordinator at Lifeline Home Health Agency and medical director at Sunrise Manor Nursing Home.
Until 2005, at the age of 93, he continued to report to his office at Lifeline in Somerset.
“I’m still kicking. I just don’t kick as high as I used to,” he said of his “retirement.”
“I don’t know how I did it,” Dr. Weddle said of his longevity in 2002. “I haven’t done anything particularly right. I’m just fortunate to have hit this age.”
His daughter, Susan Sullivan of Austin, Texas, believes that Dr. Weddle did plenty of right in his lifetime.
“He was a true gentleman,” Sullivan said last night. “Oh, that the rest of us could be half as good. … He had not felt well for a while, but he never complained. He was a small man who was bigger than life.”
Sullivan said her father “put everyone else before himself. He wanted everyone to have a positive attitude and to keep smiling.”
“He was a great listener,” she continued. “If he felt like you were asking for advice, he would give it, but if not, he would keep quiet.”
Richard Hunt Weddle was born in Somerset on April 17, 1912, “at 2:30 in the afternoon on a Wednesday,” he recalled recently.
He began spending time at the local hospital at the age of 14, developing an interest in patients’ illnesses.
“If my mother wanted me, she knew where to call,” he once said.
He traveled to the far reaches of Pulaski County with Dr. Green Cain — driving anywhere an automobile would go and then using a horse and buggy to reach the more rural areas — to help treat the population.
In 1930, he graduated from Somerset High School. He then attended the University of Kentucky and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.
He met Bitsy in 1939. Their first meeting was a blind date.
“She wasn’t much impressed with me in the beginning. … How she’s put up with me this long, I don’t know,” Dr. Weddle once said of Bitsy, who became his wife on June 21, 1941.
An observer of the Weddles’ relationship would find it difficult to believe that Mrs. Weddle would have ever been less than impressed with the bow-tie-donning doctor.
“He loved my mother more than anything,” Sullivan said of her father.
“They had a relationship like no other. They never went anywhere without each other, and he simply doted on her. … They lived a very charmed life in Somerset.”
The couple was known to share a dance on their kitchen floor when reruns of “The Lawrence Welk Show” aired.
Weddle shared his thoughts on marriage with a reporter in 2002.
“I heard once that in marriage, it’s 60/40 — both ways,” he said. “Sometimes it goes to 70/30.”
The Weddles lived in New Orleans for a time, and then Dr. Weddle was called to serve as a flight surgeon in World War II. He returned home in 1945.
In late 1949, the Weddles moved back to Somerset, and Dr. Weddle began his long career in his hometown — moving his family, which included four children, into a home on College Street built by his grandfather in the 1800s. The Weddles would remain in that home — across from Somerset High School — for the duration of their marriage.
In 1950 he helped open the Somerset Clinic.
Dr. Weddle once lamented that his wife raised their four children because he was too busy with his career. But Sullivan disagrees.
“He was always wonderful with us,” she said. “He was there for us if we needed him, just as he was there for just about anybody in Somerset who needed him.”
“I’ve had a good life,” Dr. Weddle said in 2002. “I wouldn’t change it.”
He was proud that he had kept his family in his hometown of Somerset, in spite of offers he received to move elsewhere.
“I guess I’m just a country boy,” he mused.
A funeral service will be held for Dr. Weddle Monday, July 7, at 11 a.m. at First United Methodist Church in Somerset. Visitation will be held Sunday from 5 to 8 p.m. at the church. Dr. Weddle’s complete obituary appears on page A3 of this edition or in the Obituaries section of this website.
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