Dr. Greene Fort Pinkston

Dr. Greene Fort Pinkston, born in Scott County, Mississippi, in 1875 to Ritton and Fannie Gresham Pinkston, practiced medicine for more than 58 years in the Cordova area. At age 24 he left home to attend Meharry Medical School in Nashville, graduating in 1904. He began practicing medicine in Memphis in 1905 and in 1908, with Dr. A.D. Byas, started North Memphis Co., one of the earliest black-owned drug companies. By 1915 he had purchased 258 acres in Cordova and moved with his wife, Penella Horne Pinkston, into a home on Lenow Road. Among the earliest black doctors to practice in rural Shelby County, he became known as "the Gentleman Farmer" because of his education and large farm. He treated patients in Cordova, Memphis, and surrounding rural communities. Shortly before his death in 1963, the Tennessee Valley Authority acquired all but 78 acres of his land by eminent domain, and the remaining parcel was left to his son, Howard Pinkston, staying in the family for more than 100 years.

Tennessee · United States