Dr. Howard “Leo” Beale

Dr. Howard “Leo” Beale of Franklin, Tennessee, passed away on Monday, July 29, 2024, at Williamson Medical Center in Franklin. Services will be held on Friday, August 2, at Williamson Memorial Funeral Home at 3009 Columbia Avenue in Franklin. Visitation will be held from 11:00 am until 1:00 p.m. and the services will begin in the Chapel at the funeral home at 1:00 p.m. Burial will follow at the cemetery adjacent to the funeral home.

Pallbearers will be nephews of Dr. Beale which will include Nicky Shelton, John Beale, Sam Beale, Steve Pittman, Ben Walker and Spencer Walker. Also serving as a pallbearer will be Rob Sumner, childhood friend of Dr. Beale’s oldest son, Leo. Honorary pallbearers will be members of the Coles’ Memorial Sunday School Class from Forest Hills Baptist Church in Nashville.

Leo was born on December 27, 1940, in Byhalia, Mississippi, to the late Jesse Raymond Beale and the late Pattie Clanton Beale Graham. Leo graduated from Byhalia High School as Salutatorian in 1958 and then attended Memphis State University and graduated in 1961. He attended the University of Tennessee Center for the Health Sciences in Memphis and obtained his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1964. After a rotating internship in multiple medical disciplines at UT BowldHospital and Methodist Hospitals, he satisfied his requirements for completion of his internship. He was drafted into the Air Force during the VietNam War and serve his time as a medical officer stationed in Izmir, Turkey, taking care of on-base personnel and their families, and injured servicemen who had been transported from VietNam. Upon his honorable discharge from the Air Force in 1968, he completed two Locum Tenens appointments in the State of Mississippi while waiting for his Residency in Ophthalmology at the University of Tennessee Center for the Health Sciences to begin. He completed his ophthalmology residency in June, 1972, and began two ophthalmic plastic and reconstructive surgery fellowships in July, 1972. He began private practice in ophthalmic plastic and reconstructive surgery in Memphis in July, 1973. At that particular time Leo was the only ophthalmic plastic and reconstructive surgeon within a five state area and served Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, and Kentucky. He served as a consultant for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and treated hundreds of their patients when diagnosed with childhood ophthalmic cancer. 

Leo served as President and Treasurer of the Memphis Eye Society and also served as President of the Tennessee Academy of Ophthalmology. He presented multiple lectures and papers to the American Academy of Ophthalmology over his forty years of membership. After closing his private practice in November 2006 in Memphis, he continued to practice oculoplastic surgery at multiple offices throughout Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi. He concluded his medical career as a consultant for CenseoHealth in the Tennessee geographical area.

Dr. Beale served as a professor of ophthalmic plastic and reconstructive surgery at UTCHS, Department of Ophthalmology, in Memphis from July 1973-June 1994. He also made multiple mission trips to Ometepec, Mexico, during his years as an ophthalmic surgeon. These trips were made under the auspices of the World Cataract Foundation in Memphis.

While living in the Memphis area, he served as a Sunday Schoolteacher, Deacon, and Trustee for Trinity Baptist Church in Cordova, Tennessee.

He is survived by his wife, Mona Walker Beale, and four children, Howard Leo Beale II (Leslie) of Knoxville, Christopher Markum Beale (Anna) of Chesapeake, Va., Justin Gardner Griffith (Natalie) of Franklin, and Lindsay Griffith Hatchel (Jim Bell) of Nolensville. He is also survived by nine grandchildren, Leo, Caroline, Logan, & Blake Beale of Knoxville, Madison and Christopher Beale of Chesapeake, Va., Easton Griffith of Franklin, and James Walker and Anders Hatchel of Nolensville. He also is survived by one brother, Paul Beale (Fay) of Olive Branch, Mississippi, one sister, Patsy Shelton of Madison, Mississippi, and one brother-in-law, Cliff Walker (Terry) of Union City, Tennessee. He is also survived by multiple nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations in Leo’s memory be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis or Brightstone in Franklin.