Dr. Lake Brewer

One of Missouri’s First Female Physicians —

DR. LAKE BREWER, CLASS of 1908 at the University of Missouri’s School of Medicine, was a former varsity women’s basketball player who practiced medicine in her hometown of Ridgeway, Mo. for more than 50 years. Although Brewer was aggressive enough to speak up if she thought a family was growing too large, she also was caring enough to drive a patient 90 miles to St. Joseph, Mo. to get a specialist’s opinion.  Brewer, who died in 1967, once prescribed to a Kansas City Star reporter that “Work and interest in others, I know, will cure many vague illnesses.”