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Adeline Lavonne McCormick–Ohnemus,
D.O.
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"Dr. McCormick was a classic example of an
old-time, common-sense, earthy family doctor."
— Linda Banger, 2008
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Dr. Adeline Lavonne McCormick-Ohnemus, an advocate for healthy
lifestyle choices and preventative medicine, was a role model
and motivator for the rural women she cared for over the 45
years she lived and practiced medicine in Milo. McCormick-Ohnemus
put herself through junior college and became a teacher. She
then decided to go to Drake University in pre-med and was
the only woman in her class at Still College of Osteopathy
(now Des Moines University) in the 1940s. Through much of
her career, her medical practice was adjacent to her home,
and on an average day she would care for 40 patients in the
office. McCormick-Ohnemus established herself as a dominant
force in the Osteopathic profession, supporting her school
and hospital, keeping long office hours, driving to nursing
homes in Indianola, making house calls and caring for patients
in the hospital that was 40 miles away in Des Moines. She
did it all with the grace that is befitting the profession
as the care and management of her patients always came first.
She never turned away a patient that was unable to pay. McCormick-Ohnemus
generously shared both her professional life and well as her
personal life with her community, serving as Warren County
Medical Examiner, on the Warren County Board of Health, and
as a trustee of the Iowa Osteopathic Medical Association.
After years of exemplary and loyal service to the community
of Milo, its community center has been dedicated to her memory.
She was born on November 21, 1921 in Lucas County, Iowa and
died February 22, 1996. McCormick-Ohnemus was inducted into
the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame in 2009.
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