[03/15/02]Dr. I.C. Knox Jr., a longtime obstetrician and gynecologist at Vicksburg Hospital, died Wednesday, March 13, 2002, at St. Dominic Hospital in Jackson. He was 85.

Former colleagues said Dr. Knox delivered “quite a lot” of babies and contributed greatly to the Vicksburg community. He was described as professional, religious, compassionate and a joy to work with.

“He was a prince of a fellow,” said Thelma Fedell, who worked as a nurse alongside Dr. Knox for several years.

“I can’t tell you how wonderful he was,” Fedell said. “He watched me grow up and then delivered my children.

“That’s a breed that’s gone past.”

“I’m very sorry to know that he’s passed on,” said Emma Easterling, who worked as an anesthesiologist with Dr. Knox. “He was a wonderful person in every respect, professionally and personally.”

Dr. Knox was a native of Vicksburg. He graduated from Carr Central High School and went to college at Mississippi College. After graduating from Duke University Medical School, he returned to Vicksburg, beginning work as an OB-GYN at Vicksburg Hospital, which his father helped found. He was a member and deacon of First Baptist Church in Vicksburg, and at First Baptist Church in Jackson, where he moved after retiring.

“Everybody loved him,” said Mary Francis Daughtry, who worked with Dr. Knox as assistant administrator of Vicksburg Hospital.

“He was the most honest, wonderful man that I worked around,” said Jane Griffin. “I never saw him get upset, and I had plenty of opportunities to do so.”

Griffin also praised Knox as a physician.

Dr. Knox was preceded in death by his daughter, Mary Lou Knox.

He is survived by his wife, Charlene Wright Knox of Jackson; three sons, Ike Knox of Pensacola, Richard Knox of Vicksburg and Tony Wright of Orlando; a daughter, Charlene Wright Dennen of Cape Cod, Mass.; eight grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Services will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Chapel of First Baptist Church in Jackson. Burial will follow at Lakewood Memorial Park. Wright and Ferguson Funeral Home has charge of arrangements.

Visitation will be at First Baptist Church from noon Saturday until the service.