On the occasion of the 50th reunion of the Kansas City College of Osteopathy and Surgery (now KCU) Class of 1954 Mary Lou Butterworth, DO, sat for an interview about her years at KCU. She was one of only three female students in her class. "Female students had to work twice as hard, do everything better, and work longer. We had to attend all classes because if we didn't, everyone knew we weren't there."
"I had a wild and crazy time getting here, I was thirty years old when I started." Butterworth was familiar with osteopathy from a young age because both her parents were treated by DOs. In her youth she got to sit on bleachers in the operating theater at Lakeside Hospital and watch KCU's founder, Dr. George Conley, with assistance from Margaret Jones, DO, perform an appendectomy on her father, never dreaming that one day she would study under Dr. Jones.
Butterworth worked as a photographer for the Army Corps of Engineers during World War ll, service she didn't realize would make her eligible for the G. I. Bill to attend college. When she decided to attend medical school money was tight for her family. "At that time women couldn't borrow money. I borrowed $200 from my high school teacher to buy a used microscope. I borrowed from the Knights Templar, from the AOA, everybody I could, I would borrow money from them." Because her father was a Mason, she ended up getting a scholarship from the Order of the Eastern Star. Even then she had to work during her years in medical school, working evenings in the camera department at the Katz's Drug Store at 39th and Main, and for a private investigator doing stake outs.
Upon graduation the new DO considered going into obstetrics and gynecology but didn't care for performing surgery so chose anesthesiology instead. "I liked all those buttons and knobs on the machines." She did her residency at Osteopathic Hospital, the university's teaching hospital at 9th and Harrison in downtown Kansas City. "I got $25 a month plus food and laundry. After six months I got a $25 a month raise. I was living high on the hog." Later the university offered her $750 a month to join the faculty. "I said yes, yes, yes!"
Besides serving on the faculty, Dr. Butterworth was the Alumni Association's Secretary/Treasurer for more than 35 years. She founded the Chorale (now Osteopera). "I thought we needed some culture." She wanted to establish an inter-faith chapel in University Hospital (now Century Towers). By the time she raised the money she suspected the hospital would be closing so, " we made the chapel a box within a box so it could be moved." After the hospital closed it was moved into storage, later reassembled in the administration building, now in Smith Hall. Perhaps her biggest legacy to the campus was the purchase of the Children's Mercy Hospital complex, now the current location of KCU's main campus. She was instrumental in using Alumni Association funds to purchase the 8.5 acre property and donating it to the University.
Dr. Butterworth was also quite pleased with the building named after her, the Butterworth Alumni Center, dedicated in 2001. "It was a complete surprise, it's a lovely building. If I were going to build a house, I would build it just like that. In fact I call it my house."
On asked about retirement, "As I've told people before, if they ever wanted to get rid of me, just make it so it wasn't fun anymore. As long as it's fun, I'll be there. If it stops being fun, I'm gone. Bye."
It never stopped being fun. A few months before her death she was able to coat Clawson, her great nephew, during the University's 2007 White Coating Ceremony for incoming first-year students. When Dr. Butterworth passed away in November of that year, KCU closed early so faculty, staff, and students could attend her memorial service. It was the first time in university history that it closed early to honor an individual.
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