Emanuel Bagby

Obituary

Emanuel Bagby Sr was born on April 28, 1936 in Granville County, NC to the late Roosevelt Bagby and Carrie Harris. He transitioned from this earthly life to the next chapter of his amazing journey on July 24, 2023 at Levine and Dickson Hospice House at Aldersgate in Charlotte, NC. He was preceded in death by his brothers Phillip, Sylvester, Isaiah, Willie, and his sister Lorenia Vaughn.

Biography

Early Years

Born the son of a sharecropper, Emanuel grew up in Antioch, NC on a 65 acre farm. It was an enormous landscape abundant with apple trees, peach trees, watermelon, tobacco, vegetables, a pond to swim in, mineral springs, and farm animals. Emanuel was 7th out of 11 siblings (3 girls and 8 boys). There was so much work to be done on the huge farmland that he had to keep dropping out of elementary school in order to work and maintain the farm. At age 11 (in 1947) his father passed and his Mom moved the family to Oxford, NC.

Education

In 1954 during his 10th grade year, Emanuel moved to Charlotte where he attended West Charlotte High School. His ambition was to become an illustrative artist, and as a student, he showed great leadership. He was a member of the National Honor Society, Art Club, French Club, the Mixed choir, President of the Student Council, and prior to graduation he received the Civitan Award. While singing in the mixed choir as one of the main vocalist, Emanuel met the beautiful, shy Theodoshia Leak. He was smitten, and she soon became his high school sweetheart, the love of his life, and his wife for 66 years.

He graduated high school in 1957, and in 1962 after attending Carver College and Mecklenburg College on a full scholarship, he received his associate’s degree in liberal arts with minors in math and science. His new ambition was to become a lab technician.

Career

Emanuel always had an unwavering work ethic. As soon as he moved to Charlotte, he immediately started shining shoes after school at his brother’s salon on Beatties Ford Road called “The Deluxe Barber Shop”.  At age 22 while working as a freight lifter at the railway express for $350 a month, he was offered an opportunity to work with Dr. Paul Sanger at the Sanger Clinic, and Dr. Fracis Robicsek in the Heineman Cardiovascular research lab at Memorial Hospital.  The pay was a mere $191 per month, but he felt the 50% pay cut would be worth it due to the experience he could gain working in the lab.

He absorbed information and techniques in the lab at warp speed and was soon offered a full ride to medical school. He turned down the scholarship opportunity because he didn’t want to be away from his family. Instead he dove deeper into his research and ended up helping physicians and engineers design a new heart lung machine and the operating techniques to be used in open heart surgery.

Being the first cardio pulmonary perfusionist in Charlotte and surrounding counties to operate the heart lung machine, one of the first in the country, and the first black man in history, he started being featured in local newspapers, and national magazines like Ebony and Jet.

He was an original Founding Partner of First Charlotte Perfusion Services and they were responsible for open heart surgeries at Memorial, Mercy and Presbyterian Hospitals. He went on to travel the world training medical professionals in other countries so they too could take advantage of this ground breaking technology. Sadly, his career ended when he was forced into retirement at age 57 due to the start of what would become a 30 year long battle with Parkinson's disease.

Personal Life

Married by age 21, Emanuel was a devoted husband and family man with a wife, two sons and a daughter. He had a passion for singing, bowling, drawing, painting on canvas and photography. He even had a "dark room" at home where he used trays of chemicals to develop 35 millimeter film into full color photos. He had a beautiful, smooth singing voice. They called him a “crooner” (he was especially known for the deep bass tones in his rendition of "Old Man River"). His favorite R&B vocalist was Brook Benton.  When he sang a Brook Benton song, if you closed your eyes, you'd swear it was him right there in your living room. He was constantly performing at events, and was even featured on local radio and television shows. He was a serious man, but also a funny one. He was vibrant, full of life, and such a fighter. During the latter years of his struggles with Parkinson's disease, when he stopped talking he could still sing. When he stopped singing, he could still make you laugh with his never ending sense of humor. He was so knowledgeable about so many things,  you felt a little smarter just by being in his presence. The world will definitely be a better place having had him in it.

Forever In Our Hearts

He leaves to cherish memories of his time here: His devoted wife Theodoshia Leak Bagby, his two sons Emanuel Jr (Bach-Hien Noch Duong), and Ben (Craig Strang Thompson), one daughter, Michelle Bagby, his grandson Brian Emanuel (Leah Jenkins), his great grandson Brian Emanuel Jr aka "BJ", his bonus great grandson Karson Jenkins, his Sisters Maggie Stewart, Vertie (Don) Royster, his brothers Nathanial, Bobby, and Carl (Dee), a grand fur baby Zowie, a host of nieces and nephews, plus a multitude of relatives and friends who are family.