Dr. Lucius H. Gilmore was born in Columbia, Maury County, TN in 1889. He entered public school in 1896 and graduated from the eleventh grade in 1909, the highest grade offered at the College Hill School. After high school, he worked as a reporter for the Nashville Globe Newspaper in Nashville, TN.
He attended Meharry Medical College, the Medical Department of the Central College, and interned at the Old Mercy and Hubbard Hospitals in Nashville, TN. In 1912, Dr. Gilmore graduated and returned to Columbia to practice medicine.
At the start of World War I, Dr. Gilmore volunteered for the United States Medical Corps. He reported for duty at Fort Des Moines, Iowa for military medical training at the Medical Officers Training Camp. Lieutenant Gilmore was assigned to the 365th Infantry Regiment of the 92nd Division. Gilmore and the 92nd Division served in France, where the medical detachment units were established close to the front line. He received a meritorious citation for bravery for providing aid to fellow soldiers under attack on the front line.
After serving in the military, Gilmore returned home to Columbia to continue practicing medicine. His wife, the former Hattie Sargent, an educator in Maury, died of tuberculosis in 1924, at age 34. Dr. Gilmore died in 1927 of heart disease at age 38. Gilmore was the son of Rev. John Smith and Sarah King Gilmore. Rev. Gilmore served in the United States Army from 1864 to 1866 with Company H 111th Regiment of the United States Colored Infantry.
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Author Jo Ann McClellan,
Maury County Historian and African American Heritage Society, President