‘Ophelia will be missed’: Beloved Charlotte doctor, minister dies after battle with cancer

CHARLOTTE — Tributes have been pouring in following the death of long-time Charlotte physician and community leader Dr. Ophelia Garmon-Brown.

Garmon-Brown died after a battle with brain and kidney cancer, according to a notice posted on Novant Health’s site on Wednesday.

Garmon-Brown, who was also an author and minister, co-founded the Charlotte Community Health Clinic, which serves poor and uninsured people. She was most recently named the 2020 Citizen of the Carolinas by the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance.

Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles tweeted, “Our city has lost a true champion for the underserved and a woman who valued the contributions of all people. Ophelia will be missed.”

According to WFAE, Garmon-Brown co-authored the 2020 book “The Unexpected Gift: Profiles in Courage from Cancer Survivorship,” hoping her story and the story of others could help other people.

Garmon-Brown received her medical degree in 1980 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She conducted her residency at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, where she was the hospital’s first African American female family medicine resident, WFAE reported. She had served as vice president of business and community partnerships with Novant Health’s Community Benefit Department before eventually becoming Novant Health’s senior vice president of physician services.

Funeral arrangements are still being finalized.

(WATCH BELOW: New blood test has been shown to detect more than 50 types of cancer)

©2021 Cox Media Group