Mary Franklin Knott Bazemore
Knott House Museum
Mary Franklin Knott was born on August 22, 1897, in Ocala, Florida, to William Knott and Luella Pugh Knott. Mr. Knott missed her birth; he was in Orlando on business. The name ‘Mary’ honored women on both sides of the family and her middle name ‘Franklin’ memorialized Luella’s older brother. She was called Mary Frank by family and friends.
Mary Frank, along with her two brothers, was homeschooled by her mother until high school. Mary Frank Attended Leon High School in the ninth grade then attended one year at the high school in the Florida State College for Women. From 1917-1918, Mary Frank attended the University of Tennessee.
Mary Frank moved to Philadelphia to attend the University of Pennsylvania medical school. A hardworking and accomplished woman, Mary Frank graduated in 1923 at the top of her class. At a time when only five percent of physicians were female, she had a long successful career as a pediatrician.
On May 12, 1925, Mary Frank married Earl Leroy Bazemore, in Tallahassee, Florida. They had met in school when they were both attending the University of Pennsylvania. Mary and Leroy had two children.
Mary Frank practiced medicine for fifty-two years and was licensed in Florida, Colorado, and Pennsylvania. She was a certified pediatrician and specialized in that area of medicine for the rest of her professional life. She was a pediatric consultant to the Philadelphia Department of Public Health for twenty-seven years, and she was an associate in the Henry Phipps Institute of Research of the University of Pennsylvania and collaborated on several papers published by that institute.
Mary Frank passed away on March 24, 1988 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was survived by her daughter, Mary Bazemore Hopkins, her son Charles W. Bazemore, as well as four grandchildren and five great grandchildren. Visit the Knott House Museum to learn more about the entire Knott Family.
