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Personal Life:
Dr. LaSalle Doheny Leffall Jr. was born on May 22, 1930, in Tallahassee, Fla. His father taught agriculture at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College (FAMU), a historically black college in Tallahassee. His mother, Martha Leffall, was also an educator. Leffall was raised in nearby Quincy, FL. He graduated as valedictorian from his high school at 15 years old, and matriculated to FAMU, where he was initiated to Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Leffall was initially rejected by Howard University College of Medicine because of a low score on his Medical College Admission Test (MCAT). That decision was reversed after Florida A&M College President William H Gray travelled to Washington, DC and personally lobbied the Howard medical school dean to admit Leffall. Leffall was accepted at Howard and graduated first in his class from Howard in 1952. During his fourth year at Howard, Leffall met his future wife, Ruth McWilliams. McWilliams would describe her initial impression of Leffall as “..clean-cut, nice, intelligent, exceedingly kind to people and interested in his work." The couple would marry in 1956 and had one son, LaSalle “Donney” Leffall III.
After earning his MD, Leffall completed his internship at Homer G. Phillips Hospital in St. Louis (1953-54), followed by an assistant residency in surgery at Freedman’s Hospital and D.C. General Hospital (1954-56). He served as the chief resident at Freedman’s Hospital (1956- 57), followed by a fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering
Hospital (1957-59).
After completion of his surgical oncology fellowship, Leffall entered military service. He served as chief of general surgery at the U.S. Army Hospital, Munich, Germany (1960−1961). Before being deployed overseas with the Army Medical Corps, Leffall was assigned to a base in Texas. At one point during his service, he and three white fellow soldiers went to the movies one day; the attendant refused to admit Leffall. Leffall would later reflect that, “Of all the things I have experienced, I think that hurt worse than anything else.Here I am, on my way to help the men and women who are defending our country, and I can’t go to a movie with my colleagues.”
Upon his return to the U.S., Dr. Leffall joined the Howard faculty as an assistant professor and became chairman, department of surgery, only eight years later, a position he held for 25 years.