High school football letterman John Batty at Grand Lake, Colo. (Courtesy photo) [Click to enlarge]

The family moved soon after he was born to York, Neb., where his father took over a dental practice. They were not to be long in York. In 1919 John's mother passed away, and a year later his father died.

John was sent to McCook to live with his mother's brother, Harry Stewart and his wife, Edna (nee Yarder), while John's brother, Paul, was sent to live with another aunt and her husband in Western Springs, Ill., a suburb of Chicago.

Dr. John Batty today

Harry Stewart was a train dispatcher and John remembers the April day he (age 5) arrived in McCook aboard Train No. 5 (frightened and apprehensive of his new life) and walking with his uncle, up Main Street, past McCook's imposing new post office.

That fall, John started school at the old Valentine (East Ward) school, to his kindergarten teacher, Milicent Slaby, who later was the long time Librarian at the old Carnegie Library.

In those days there was not nearly as much organized recreation for young people, and as a result kids made up their own recreation. Marbles was a favorite game, as was "Shinny," a type of Field Hockey, played with a stick instead of a puck or a ball.

A little later the neighborhood boys attached a barrel hoop to Henry Schneider's garage, which served as the goal for primitive, but very spirited neighborhood basketball games.

In 1925 John was in the first group of boys to sign up when the new YMCA was opened at East and Main Street. It was here that he took his first shower bath ("which signaled the last time I ever took a tub bath," says John.) It was also at the Y that John learned to swim, an activity which he has embraced his entire life. In those days swimming at the Y was strictly a segregated activity, as the rules of the Y called for boys to swim in the nude -- "skinny dipping."

John Batty was a member of one of the McCook Junior College classes who took their instruction on the upper floor of the Main Street YMCA. Regardless of less than ideal conditions at the Y, the instruction he received was good, and John was able to enter the University of Nebraska Medical school in 1934, and graduated four years later.

After a residency in General Medicine at the University of Chicago teaching hospital he joined a Clinic in Hibbing, Minn., for the princely salary of $300/month. Even though the salary was not large, in his third year he felt it was adequate to marry his wife, Marjorie. (Marjorie's father had ice cream manufacturing plants in McCook, Holdrege, and Hastings in Nebraska.)

In 1942 John Batty enlisted in the U.S. Navy, and spent a year at the Naval Station at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. He later saw sea duty aboard a destroyer in the Central Pacific, and finished up his military career as a medical officer at the Marine Base at Camp Pendleton before his discharge from the service in 1946.

Upon returning to civilian life, Batty looked at medical opportunities in several medical clinics in Southwest Nebraska before accepting a position with Dr. Shank at the McCook Clinic, along with Drs. Karrer and James.

Even though the doctors at the McCook Clinic were all Doctors of General Practice Medicine the practice evolved so that each of the partners had a specialty. Drs. Shank and Karrer did most of the surgery, Dr. James became known as McCook's "baby doctor," and Dr. Batty became known as the "heart doctor."

John was serious about the causes of heart disease and could be quite outspoken in warning his patients about the dangers of smoking and being overweight. In his first years he delivered very few babies, but later he was intrigued with the advantages of hypnotism in deliveries, and developed a following among women who wished to use hypnotism in the delivery of their babies.

In speaking with Dr. Batty, it is interesting when he recalls a McCook name from the past. Usually he identifies that name with the person's principal ailment, which he refers to in long medical terms, such as "Oh yes, Mr. Smith, he suffered from acute pernicious anemia, an intriguing case".

Dr. Batty recalls the days when the clinic was located in the upstairs of what is now the Mason Insurance Office on C Street.

It was often a real chore for patients to climb those stairs. One time, a couple of young men came limping into the office, one with an arrow protruding from his jacket. The two had been practicing archery and somehow an errant shot sent an arrow into the stomach area of the boy. Miraculously, the arrow had gone in cleanly, missing the bowel and all vital organs. The removal of the arrow required a good bit of patience and took some time, but with a minimum of dressing, the young fellow walked out of the clinic, with no lasting ill effects.

When the Battys returned to McCook they moved into a house at 141 West O St., the only house available in that busy, postwar era. They were living at this location on a Sunday afternoon when their two boys, Johnny, age 6, and Steve, 20 months younger were involved in a sledding accident.

A neighbor was pulling a number of the neighborhood boys on sleds behind his car. Johnny was attempting to get in the car while it was still moving when he slipped and fell under the rear wheels of the vehicle.

John was on the scene within minutes of the accident, but it was too late. It was immediately apparent that Johnny's injuries were fatal. Though it has been a very long time ago, the vision of the accident scene and his feelings at that moment are as vivid in John's mind eye as if the tragedy had happened yesterday

After a long career in medicine Dr. Batty retired in 1982. He may have retired from practicing medicine, but he has many varied interests and has remained very active in the community. An active Rotarian, a number of John's projects have involved the Rotary Club. He was the instigator, and active promoter of the popular "Travel and Adventure" series which allowed area citizens to travel the world through the films and live descriptions from famed world travelers. He was the force behind the Rotary Walking Trail, which will eventually provide a walking and bicycle trail completely around the city.

For a number of years John's flower boxes graced that trail. John badgered the city into installing watering stations at regular intervals along the trail, and begged "end of season" plantings from the McCook nursery dealers for these flower boxes, which Rotarians tended.

Dr. Batty, who loves grand opera, has been a long time supporter of the Community Concert Association, as well as a patron of the arts.

He has been an angel to young artists, and has filled his home with favorite paintings, to the extent that he has run out of wall space to hang more paintings and presently displays new works of art on the living room floor in front of the fireplace. It is very difficult for him to give away, or place in storage his favorite paintings (he refers to them as "old friends").

Dr. Batty, a widower, is a wonderful cook and prides himself on his jams and jellies, which he frequently uses to delight his friends and neighbors. The only drawback, says his son, Steve, with whom he lives, is that it is difficult to maintain normal weight, in the face of too many "gourmet" meals.

Dr. Batty has long had a love affair with water. For many years he vacationed at, and sailed upon the waters at Grand Lake, in Colorado. He was among Southwest Nebraska's foremost sailors on local lakes, and spent many winters sailing the waters of the Caribbean, and even sailing in Mediterranean waters off the coasts of Italy and Yugoslavia with friends, Floyd Hershberger and Russ Kugler, both of McCook.

Dr. Batty looks back fondly on a lifetime of experiences, and even at 93 his interests are so many and so varied that he asks, "How could anyone be bored with life?"