Lynnette H. McNeal, 87, of Rosemont, noted psychiatrist
Dr. Lynnette was one of 11 children born to a family of modest means in the Elmwood section of Southwest Philadelphia. She trained locally and became a psychiatrist.
Lynnette Hammond McNeal, 87, of Rosemont, a noted psychiatrist who treated adolescent patients, died Thursday, March 21, of a pulmonary embolism at Bryn Mawr Hospital.
Dr. McNeal was one of 11 children born to Horace and Albertha Hammond. The family lived in the Elmwood section of Southwest Philadelphia. She graduated from John Bartram High School in 1949.
In December of that year, she enlisted in the Army at a time when the armed forces were working to comply with President Harry S. Truman’s 1948 executive order abolishing discrimination “on the basis of race, color, religion or national origin.”
She began her military service in one of the last remaining all-black Women’s Army Corps units, her family said. By the time she was honorably discharged in 1953 with the rank of corporal, the vestiges of segregation had lessened but were not eradicated, she told her family.
During the Korean War, she spent two years in Japan as a laboratory technician in an Army hospital. She was awarded a Korean Service Medal and a U.N. Service Medal.
After returning home from her military service, Dr. McNeal earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1957 from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, now the University of the Sciences.
In 1961, she received a medical degree from Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, now Drexel University College of Medicine. She earned board certification from the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology with a specialty in psychiatry in 1973.
“She had a love of chemistry, and received numerous awards for her work in that field of study, which led to a long career in medicine and psychiatry,” her family said. Her practice focused on adolescent patients, although she did treat other age groups.
She interned at Germantown Hospital and afterward completed a psychiatric residency at Norristown State Hospital, where she served as the director of the adolescent unit. Later in her career, she was involved with clinical drug trials at Merck, Sharp & Dohme Corp., now Merck & Co. Toward the end of her career, she practiced psychiatry part-time at Haverford State Hospital before retiring in the 1990s.
She married George Edward McNeal Jr., a pathologist, in 1960. They raised four children in Rosemont.
Dr. McNeal was a lifelong student of the arts as well as French, Italian, German, Spanish, guitar, violin, and piano.
“Her idea was to keep her mind active, and she did that,” said daughter Jacqueline. Dr. McNeal supported local theater and the Philadelphia Orchestra. She enjoyed taking long walks in Ashbridge Park and on the Rosemont College campus. She was fond of growing flowering plants.
She and her husband traveled to Egypt, China, India, Alaska, Hawaii, Europe, and the Caribbean.
In addition to her husband and daughter, Dr. McNeal is survived by daughters Frances, Nancy, and Marilyn; two grandchildren; two brothers; and many nieces and nephews.
Plans for services were pending.
Memorial donations may be made to the Mary Louise Curtis Branch of the Settlement Music School, 416 Queen St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19147.