Background
Leonidas Berry was born on July 20, 1902 in Woodsdale, North Carolina, United States, in the family of Llewellyn L. and Beulah Anne (Harris) Berry.
Leonidas Berry was born on July 20, 1902 in Woodsdale, North Carolina, United States, in the family of Llewellyn L. and Beulah Anne (Harris) Berry.
After graduating from Wilberforce University in 1924, Berry moved to Chicago where he received a second Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Chicago, followed by a Doctor of Medicine degree from the Rush Medical College of the University. In 1933, he also received a Master of Science degree in Pathology from the University of Illinois Medical School.
After receiving Leonidas's medical degree, Berry worked briefly at the Freedman's Hospital in Washington, D.C. And then at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Illinois where he specialized in gastroenterology and retired in 1975 as chief of endoscopy and senior attending physician. Berry lived in Chicago since his return in 1931, working at the Michael Reese Hospital, Provident Hospital, and the University of Illinois Medical School.
In addition to Leonidas's long and distinguished medical career, Berry was active in teaching, writing, and community public service. The latter included work in civil rights, on the racial problems of public health, and with the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He was also the author of a genealogical history of his family "I Wouldn't Take Nothin' For My Journey: Two Centuries of an Afro-American Minister's Family" published in 1982.
On June 27, 1937 Leonidas married Opheila Flannagan Harrison, with whom he had a child, Judith Berry Griffin, but heir marriage ended. Then he married Emma Ford Willis on August 7, 1959. He also had two stepchildren, Alvin E. Harrison and Frances W. Jackson.