Jureta Whitfill Horton: Burn researcher mentored women in
field
08:13 AM CDT on Friday, August 24, 2007
Jureta Whitfill Horton rose from an entry-level laboratory position in 1962 to become a respected scientist and an internationally recognized burn researcher.
She was a professor and director of surgical research at UT Southwestern Medical Center, blazing a trail for women researchers and mentoring many students who followed her path.
Dr. Horton died Monday of complications of breast cancer at UT Southwestern University Hospital. She was 66.
"She just didn't accept 'can't do,' 'won't do' or 'too hard' from a woman," said her husband, Kenneth Horton of Frisco. "She wanted them to go compete, and she wanted them to not give up."
Mr. Horton said his wife would be the first inductee to a Hall of Fame being started by the Shock Society, an organization of laboratory researchers and medical doctors devoted to trauma victims. The group, which Dr. Horton served as president in 2000 and 2001, also plans to create the Jureta Horton Award in recognition of outstanding junior female shock researchers.
Born in Ennis, Dr. Horton grew up in Alma and graduated from St. John Catholic School in Ennis, where she was valedictorian.
She received her bachelor's degree from Our Lady of the Lake College in San Antonio, graduating magna cum laude in August 1962.
She married and took a research position at what is now UT Southwestern about one month after graduating.
In Dallas, she worked with the UT Southwestern staff members who built the institution's reputation as a burn unit, including the late Dr. Charles Baxter.
While rising through the ranks of laboratory positions, Dr. Horton resumed her education and received a doctorate in 1981.
Mr. Horton said his wife "wrote the book" on how to train paramedics about the fluid resuscitation of burn victims. She also rewrote military field-training manuals on restoring fluid levels of burn victims, he said. Dr. Horton was invited to speak worldwide, her husband said.
She had been director of the burn research unit at UT Southwestern in Dallas since 1991. She was the first woman on the research board at Shriners Hospital for Children in Tampa, Fla., and had been chairman of that board since 2002.
"She completely revamped the Shriners' methodology and really made them become a world-class organization in the kind of science they were funding," her husband said.
In addition to doing research, Dr. Horton taught laboratory and clinical research techniques to surgical students and doctoral candidates, said Dr. Robert Rege, chairman of UT Southwestern's surgery department.
"She had multiple mentees, people she worked with, who did various aspects of burn research," Dr. Rege said.
"She was a very competent, intelligent woman," Dr. Rege said. "She was a strong woman, as you can expect. ... There weren't as many women in this business as there are now." Dr. Horton continued her research until several weeks ago, Dr. Rege said.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10 a.m. today at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Frisco. She will be buried in Ridgeview West Memorial Park in Frisco.
In addition to her husband, Dr. Horton is survived by a daughter, Kimberly Stephens of The Colony; a son, Greg Horton of The Colony; her mother, Frances Whitfill of Ennis; and two grandchildren.