Around West Tennessee the name Crenshaw was common in the medical field, so when James Crenshaw, Jr. decided to follow in his father and two uncles footsteps it was not a surprise. The youngest Crenshaw, in keeping with tradition chose to practice in West Tennessee, however, he choose a slightly extended path from his predecessors as he chose to specialize in cardiology rather than be a generalist.
Crenshaw, who grew up in Humboldt and graduated from Old Hickory Academy, knew medicine was what he wanted to pursue. His father and uncles were general practitioners in Humboldt. “I saw how much my father enjoyed being a doctor and that was really what sparked my interest,” said Crenshaw. “While my dad never pressured me to choose medicine, he was glad I did.”
For college, Crenshaw chose the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. At that time, pre-med students could apply to medical school at the end of their junior year. If accepted, the student would earn a Bachelor of Arts degree after completing their first year of medical school. Crenshaw applied and was accepted into the medical program at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center in Memphis.
“Initially I intended to be a general practitioner like my father and my uncles but my dad encouraged me to consider something different,” said Crenshaw. “He thought I might be happier as a specialist where I would get to do procedures as well as see patients in the office. It took me until the third year of my internal medicine residency in Memphis to realize he was right and decide to go into cardiology.”
After completing his internal medicine residency, Crenshaw spent a year as chief resident before starting his cardiology fellowship at UT-Memphis, which he completed in 1993. Although he interviewed in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, he felt a tug on his heartstrings to return to West Tennessee to practice. “My dad was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease while I was finishing my medical training and was only able to practice one more year after I began my career,” said Crenshaw. “While I felt I needed to be close to my family to help out, I loved Jackson and knew it provided me a great opportunity to practice cardiology. I love getting to practice big city medicine in a relatively small town. So in 1993, I became the fifth cardiologist at the Jackson Clinic.”
After practicing cardiology for more than twenty years at the clinic, Crenshaw has seen his practice grow significantly and major advancements in the treatment of heart disease. “Being from a medical family and from the area, I sort of came into my practice with a head start in terms of people knowing my family which helped my practice grow early on. It is also neat to treat people that I have known or who knew my dad or uncle,” he said. “Also, as baby boomers age, more people are suffering from heart disease. And the disease is endemic to this area.”
New treatments and advances in medications to treat heart disease issues have provided Crenshaw with new things to learn over the years. “You are almost constantly training on something new. You have to stay on top of things and we are fortunate that the hospital makes sure we have the latest technology for our specialty,” he said. “There have been so many advancements in our field. One I am very excited about is for the treatment of chronic total occlusions. We now have equipment that will open chronically occluded arteries we could not otherwise access. Even though some techniques that have been around for awhile we can now do safer and more successfully with the news techniques and equipment.”
While his days may be filled with treating ailing hearts, Crenshaw’s home is where his heart is. Although he and his wife of more than 26 years, Amy, have three biological children, they realized their hearts had room for more. “My wife brought up the idea of adopting a child internationally and once I warmed to the idea of adopting one, it was pretty easy to be convinced not to stop at one,” said Crenshaw. “The Lord has blessed us significantly and we knew we could bless others who may not have the same opportunities we do. What we have realized though is that we are the ones who have been blessed far more than the kids.”
Today the Crenshaw household includes nine children that range in age from eight to twenty-five. Their oldest son, Nat, is in agriculture aviation and maintenance, daughter Shelby is in nursing school while Kara, their youngest biological child, studies business at UT. Adopted from China are Mae, a junior in high school; seventh grader Cooper; Leah, who is 13 and autistic; and fourteen year old Mac, who joined the family at the age of six. Rounding out the Crenshaw family are Ross and Winter, biological brothers from Ethiopia who are eleven and eight.
“The Lord laid Ethiopia on our hearts and we knew that siblings are harder to place because not everyone can take more than one child at a time,” said Crenshaw, who is an avid woodworker. “We feel our family is complete and so now the only additions will be grandchildren.”
Print
