Obit – Dr. Roger Duke
A highly respected and beloved Smith County physician has died at the age of 72 following a nearly seventeen-year battle with multiple sclerosis.
Dr. Roger Duke age 72 of Lebanon was pronounce deceased at 6:13 a.m. Monday morning August 26, 2024 at the Quality Center for Rehabilitation and Healing in Lebanon where he was admitted August 22nd for rehabilitation for a back injury suffered from a fall at his Mayflower Way home in Lebanon.
A funeral service in Celebration of his remarkable Life will be conducted on Friday morning August 30th at 11 a.m. from the Carthage Chapel of Sanderson Funeral Home. Bro. Jackie Dillehay will deliver the introduction and prayer and longtime friends Scotty Lewis, Dr. Angela Moss and James E. “Jimmy” Trainham Sr. will deliver eulogies.
The Duke family will receive friends at Sanderson in Carthage on Thursday from, 2 p.m. until 7 p.m. and again on Friday after 10 a.m.
Dr. Duke was born Roger Mackey Duke at the former Wilson Clinic in Carthage on July 8, 1952 and was the son of the late Riddleton Community native, Webb Allen Duke who died at the age of 58 on December 14, 1974 of a sudden heart attack and Defeated Creek Community native, Leu Cendy Reece Duke who died December 3, 2001 at the age of 79.
He was reared in the Defeated Creek Community where his parents owned and operated Dukes Radio and T. V. Service until the sudden death of his father from a heart attack.
Having spent his entire life in the Defeated Creek Community until attending medical school, he attended Defeated Creek Elementary School thru the eighth grade and was a member of the 1970 graduating class at Smith County High School where his majors were science and music. He was a member of the Smith County High School Marching Band, participated in the Spring Festivals and the Fall Festivals all for all four years of high school. He was also a member of the Pep club all four years, the library club his freshman year, and the junior play cast.
It was stated of him in the 1970 Owl annual; “Science is the search for truth”’
Dr. Duke had just recently sold his Defeated Creek Highway childhood home on Cordell Hull Lake.
After graduating high school, he became a Tennessee Emergency Medical Technician, then a Paramedic and was employed at the former Sanderson-Smith County Ambulance Service while working simultaneously as a lab technician at Smith County Hospital under the late Dr. Hugh E. Green and later at the former Carthage General Hospital under the training of the late Dr. Frank T. Rutherford. He began working in the lab at Smith County Hospital while a student at S.C.H.S.
Following his pre-med studies at Tennessee Tech, he then attended his first two years of medical school in Guadalajara, Mexico before transferring to the then Quillen-Dishner Medical School at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City and while there trained at the James Quillen Veterans Administration Medical Center. He graduated E.T.S.U. in 1984.
Before becoming a Board-Certified Family Medicine Physician he completed his medical residency in Gadsen, Alabama.
Dr. Duke and Dr. Rick Rutherford owned and operated Carthage Family Practice for many years before he formed a new practice, Carthage Family Healthcare in Carthage. He continued to practice until M.S. dominated Dr. Duke’s life. He then retired and formed Superior Medical Services Group, doing medical work by computer for health insurance companies and attorneys from his Hilltop Drive home office in Carthage.
During the Persian Gulf War, he joined the United States Army serving in the Medical Corps and was discharged with the rank of Captain from the United States Army Reserve on October 19, 1999. He was discharged from active training at Fort Sam Houston, Texas on May 24th, 1991 having served with the 18th Medical Battalion.
Even after his illness, he continued to serve his community by being the local medical information resource during the COVID pandemic and providing valuable advice through our local media outlets. During the administration of Carthage Mayor Sarah Marie Smith, Dr. Duke was the Chairman of the Carthage Planning Commission and the Carthage Zoning Board. He helped to implement updated zoning regulations through his joint work with C.T.A.S.
He has just recently sold his multilevel home in Carthage and relocated to a one level home in Lebanon which would afford him more mobility.
Dr. Duke is survived by his three children, Nicholas Duke and wife Summer, Nicole Duke and Noelle Duke all of Lebanon; the mother of his three children, Jennifer Duke also of Lebanon.
Dr. Duke’s family has requested memorials to St. Jude in Memphis.
SANDERSON of CARTHAGE
