Remembering
Dr. R.E. Foust
Written by Justin D. Lamb
Courtesy of Marshall County Archives
Dr. Rufus Ewing Foust was born in Montgomery County, Tennessee to Finis Ewing Foust and Mary Ann Harsley Foust on May 15, 1879. He grew up working on the family farm alongside his father and three siblings and graduated from Cumberland City Academy in Cumberland City, Tennessee in 1897. He then moved south to Nashville where he attended dental school at Vanderbilt University. Following completion of the two year dental course at Vanderbilt, Foust moved to Louisville, Kentucky and attended Louisville College of Dentistry.
Foust returned home to Montgomery County, Tennessee in 1902 and he went into dental practice at Clarksville with Dr. B.M. Stainbrack. Foust soon returned to school to further his education at Vanderbilt University which he completed in May 1904. Foust completed post graduate work at Northwestern University in Chicago in 1912. Foust married Lala Rook Wilson of Marshall County on June 12, 1906 and they had two daughters together: Rebecca Foust Lilly and Jacqueline Wilson Foust.
Dr. Foust came to Marshall County around 1905 and began practice in Benton. His office was equipped with the latest technology of the day including an x-ray machine. Dr. Foust gained a reputation as an excellent dentist but many recall that he was “rough as a cob” while performing his work.
Former Marshall County Judge H.H. Lovett, Sr. recalled his first visit to Dr. Foust in a 1970 oral history interview with the Marshall County Public Library: “Dr. R.E. Foust came here about 1904 or 1905 as a young dentist and Dr. Foust and I eventually became real good friends. Dr. Foust was a good dentist but only had one good eye that he could see out of. About 1907 or 1908, I had been having a lot of trouble with my teeth and I had one abscess, so Doc Foust give me something to kill the abscess and told me that maybe he wouldn’t have to pull the tooth out. Doc Foust was living at his mother-in-laws at that time and he told me that if the tooth didn’t get any better that I needed to come see him at his residence and he would do something about it. The tooth kept hurting so bad that I couldn’t stand it, so I went down to Doc Foust’s house about eight o’clock at night. He sat me down in a chair and looked around at the tooth for awhile and finally decided that it was just going to have to come out. He leaned me back in the chair and put the forceps on the tooth and would twist on that tooth for a while and then take a break. The pain was something awful! He’d try again and pull and jerk on that tooth and then let me take a break from the pain. Now, he did this for about three hours. Well, he didn’t have anything to kill the pain except for a fifth of brandy. So, in between him pulling and prodding on my tooth, I’d take a swig of brandy to dull the pain. He finally got that tooth out about four hours later and I had eventually drunk all that brandy. Well, to say the least, I was a little drunk at the end of that visit and that was the first time I had ever been drunk. Doc Foust asked me if I wanted him to take me home, and I told him no and told him I could make it on my own. Well, I staggered out of his house and it took me almost all night to make it home! To make things worse, for the next week or so whenever I would take a drink of water I would taste that brandy!”
During the 1940s, Dr. Foust was involved in a rather humorous automobile accident case which is comically remembered by all those who recall this incident. One night Dr. Foust was traveling in his car in north Benton when he met an oncoming truck with only one headlight. As the truck came closer, Dr. Foust, who only had one good eye, refused to share the road and did not give the truck enough room on the road which resulted in the two vehicles crashing. Thankfully neither party was injured, but Dr. Foust was cited and had to appear in court for causing the accident.
On the day of the trial in the upstairs courtroom at the courthouse, Dr. Foust was questioned in court by the county attorney who asked “Dr. Foust, there clearly was enough room for both of the vehicles on the road. Why did you run the man in the truck over?” Dr. Foust slowly leaned forward in the witness stand and rested himself on his cane and replied in his in slow southern drawl, “Well, he only had one headlight and I thought he was on a ‘motor-sickle’, so I only gave him ‘motor-sickle’ room!” Dr. Foust’s reply caused the courtroom to erupt with laughter.
Dr. Foust was heavily involved in the civic affairs in Benton. He was a longtime member of the Benton Board of Trustees (precursor to the Benton City Council) and was elected Chairman of the Board which had similar duties as a mayor. During his time on the town board of trustees, Dr. Foust oversaw the purchase and installation of the light plant in Benton and was later hired as manager of the Benton Light Plant until it was sold to corporate interests. Dr. Foust was also chairman of the Benton Board of Education and a charter member of the Benton Young Men’s Progress Club which later evolved into the Marshall County Rotary Club.
In the mid 1940s, Dr. Foust suffered a stroke which forced him to close his dental practice. Dr. Foust continued to remain active in local civic affairs until March 1959 when he passed away after suffering a second stroke. He was laid to rest at Benton Mausoleum.
