Hall of Honor Album - Fayetteville Public Schools

Dr. James Mashburn, ‘42
More than ten thousand babies were brought into the world by Dr. James Mashburn
during his thirty-eight year career as an obstetrician in Fayetteville.
Dr. Mashburn was born on November 15, 1925 at Fayetteville City Hospital. As a child
he lived on Highway 71 South, which was not paved at that time. He attended the
Fayetteville Public Schools, including Jefferson Elementary School and Fayetteville High
School. He became financially self-supporting in the third grade when he started
delivering the Fayetteville Daily Democrat for two cents per copy. F. N. Price of Price-
Patton Men’s Store called Mashburn “Dollar Jimmy” because he bought clothes from
the store and paid one dollar per week from his newspaper route earnings.
James graduated from the University of Arkansas School of Medicine at age twenty-one
and served his residency in obstetrics-gynecology at Arkansas Baptist Hospital in Little
Rock. He began his medical practice in Fayetteville in 1950 and retired in 1988. He was
on the staff of Washington County Hospital (later Washington Regional Medical Center)
when it opened in August of 1950. He served as chief of staff of the hospital in 1967.
He was also on staff at Fayetteville City Hospital, Springdale Hospital, and served as
president of the Washington County Medical Society.
He served in the U.S. Navy for thirty-one months during World War II. He also served in
Korea with the Arkansas National Guard during four campaigns in the Korean War. As
state surgeon for the Arkansas National Guard, he served as Medical Officer in Charge
of the Every Child by 1974 immunization program sponsored by Governor Dale Bumpers
and his wife, Betty. He received the Legion of Merit and retired as a brigadier general.
Mashburn has long been actively involved in public service, serving on the Washington
County 4-H board, the Fayetteville Planning Commission, and the Arkansas State Police
Commission, including two years as chairman. He was appointed to the board of
directors of McIlroy Bank in 1959 and served for forty years.
He and his wife, Barbara, co-founded the Barbara Mashburn Scholarship Foundation,
which provides vocal music scholarships to talented students. He also partnered with
the Washington Regional Medical Foundation to provide scholarships to nursing
students and other medical service students.
Dr. Mashburn passed away in September of 2006.