Risser Hospital

Risser Hospital opened in 1956 in a town whose hospital care had a segregated past. S. B. Allen Memorial Hospital began in 1902 to care for Fannin County's indigent patients. A 2009 history says Black patients had to receive surgical, medical or obstetric care there under state law. The Fannin County Colored Hospital, a recovery building on the Allen grounds, was set for dedication on September 17, 1939 after years of fund-raising by the Reverend J. D. Johnson, who died in 1945. In July 1959 Allen Memorial closed over debt and reopened days later.

What the plaque says

Risser Hospital Constructed about 1915 by John Sparger, Jr., this building first served as the residence of D. W. Sweeney, a local merchant and banker. In 1956 it was purchased by Dr. Joe A. Risser and opened as an 18-bed hospital, one of several doctor-operated clinics that served the medical needs of Bonham residents. Risser Hospital gained national attention on Nov. 16, 1961, when Sam Rayburn, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, died in the northeast downstairs room while a patient here. Dr. Risser, Rayburn's personal physician, operated the facility until 1971, when it was closed. (1981)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site — 2.3 mi
  The two-story farmhouse west of Bonham that the longtime Speaker of the House built in 1916 and kept as his home, left as he lived in it and open as a museum since 1975.
• Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site — 23 mi
  The small frame house beside the Katy tracks in Denison where Dwight Eisenhower was born in 1890, bought by townspeople in 1946 and given to Texas in 1958.
• Eisenhower State Park — 29 mi
  A bluff-top park on Lake Texoma opened in 1958 on land leased from the Corps of Engineers, in the Red River country of Fort Johnson, Colbert's Ferry and the Butterfield stages.

More markers nearby

• On Route of Early Texas Streetcars — steps away
• Carlton College — steps away
• First Baptist Church — steps away
• First Christian Church of Bonham — steps away