Dr. Gladys Ingram
Born Lorena Gladys Little in Putnam County, Missouri, Gladys was the youngest of six children. She graduated from Palmer School of Chiropractic in Iowa and married Finis Griffin. One child, Viola Mae, was born to them in 1915. For several years Gladys was a chiropractor in Trenton, known as Dr. Griffin. Starting in 1916 she was a member of the American Chiropractic Association.
In 1929 Gladys married Charles L. Ingram of Kansas City. For a time, C.L. worked in the Treasury Department for Kansas City but died in the fall of 1936. The couple was living in Chillicothe by 1931 and Gladys first opened an office over the Constitution-Tribune at 504 ½ Washington Street. In 1936, Gladys, now known as Dr. Ingram, became the first President of the National Women’s Chiropractic Association. She lived at 810 ½ Clay Street, in the Drs. Grace building just west of Washington Street (in the back of the “Shooters” building). As late as 1951, she ran her chiropractor business downtown, the Ingram Chiropractic Center. During her roughly 20 years in Chillicothe, she was very involved with the local Business and Professional Women’s Club, serving as its President from 1934-1935, and served as Third Vice-President of the State Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Club. She also attended the First Christian Church and was president of their Loyal Women’s Class for over 15 years. In 1951 she sold her business to Dr. C. R. Bonnett and moved to Kansas City to go into the real estate business. She wrote a book in late 1970 entitled “Traveling an Uncharted Road” about her “courageous fight” in the field of chiropractic medicine, telling her life story as well as dispelling myths about chiropractic medicine. She passed in 1985 in Kansas City at the age of 94.
Sources: Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune newspapers, city directories, her book Traveling an Uncharted Road, Missouri death certificates