James D. Hagood

James Davis Hagood (November 4, 1889 – December 30, 1972) was a Virginia physician and Democratic member of the Senate of Virginia. Allied with the Byrd Organization, Hagood represented a district centered around Halifax County part-time for three decades. For the last six years and in the absence of Virginia's Lieutenant Governors, Hagood led the Virginia senate as its President pro tempore.

Early and family life Born on November 4, 1889, in the small crossroads town of La Crosse, Virginia in rural Mecklenburg County to the former Florence Cleaton and her husband James Gholson Hagood. He attended a private academy in Warrenton, North Carolina, then went to Richmond, Virginia to study medicine at the Medical College of Virginia, from which he graduated in 1913. After her death, in 1936 he married Wirt Carrington Jordan (whose ancestors on both sides had long governed Halifax County), who survived him. Dr. Hagood was active in his Methodist Church, the Masons and Shriners.

Career When a yellow fever epidemic hit Halifax County in 1920, Dr. Hagood was appointed (without pay) as a part-time health officer, as had been the county's custom. However, in 1922, with help from the Commonwealth and Red Cross, Halifax County employed its first health officer, as well as nurses, who would continue to address sanitation and other concerns. Initially, Dr. Hagood lived in Scottsburg, Virginia, but in 1927 bought the clinic of Dr. R.H. Fuller and moved to Clover, Virginia (still in Halifax County), and owned various pieces of property throughout the county. Previously, each of the town's three doctors operated their own very small hospitals (caring for perhaps six patients), and residents needing more extensive care went to far-away hospitals in Lynchburg, Danville, Richmond or Charlottesville, Virginia, or even Duke University Hospital in North Carolina or Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland. Dr. Hagood became medical director of the Halifax Community Hospital (1948-1953) before its formal opening. In 1946, his nephews William Hagood Jr. and Warren Hagood had also joined the Hagood general practice. Dr. Hagood was active in the Commonwealth Club, Medical Society of Virginia (President in 1957), Virginia Academy of General Practice (past president), South Piedmont Medical Society, Virginia State Medical Society, American Medical Association.

Involved in the local Democratic Party, Hagood initially served on the local school board (1920-1932), then as the supervisor for the county's Roanoke district (1932-1942). When Halifax county's state senator, lawyer William N. Tuck (influential in the Byrd Organization and a key figure in Massive resistance after 1954) successfully ran for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, Hagood was slated for his former senate seat. He won election and re-election easily, and became chairman of the powerful Finance Committee in 1950 (Tuck having won election as Virginia's governor in 1945 and treating the doctor as an elder brother).

Death and legacy Hagood died following a stroke on December 30, 1972, at a hospital in South Boston. He was buried in Clover Cemetery. His papers are held among the special collections of the University of Virginia library. A section of U.S. Route 360 in Halifax county (between Clover and South Boston) is named in his honor.