Dr. Alva L. Blaine, a prominent pediatrician in Corpus Christi for many years before her retirement in 1989, died in Corpus on July 22, 2017 after a long illness. She was 92 years old.
Dr. Blaine was born Alva Lucille Lockhart on April 13, 1925 in Pharr, Texas to Dr. Jesse Polk Lockhart and registered nurse Bernetta Sedgewick Lockhart. She was the youngest of three girls and her sister Jessie also became a doctor. Alva attended McAllen High School, Edinburg Junior College and the University of Texas at Austin and graduated from the U.T. Southwestern Medical College in Dallas in 1946, at age 21. She was one of only two women in her medical school class, at a time when women rarely become physicians.
Alva married medical school classmate Mose H. Blaine shortly after graduation and they did their medical internships together at Baylor University Hospital in 1946-47. During 1947 to 1949, Alva and Mose lived in Berchtesgaden, Germany while Mose served as a doctor in the Army after WW II. Both the couple's children, Mike and Barbara, were born during this time.
After additional training and practice in Houston and Temple, Texas, Alva and Mose settled with their family in Corpus Christi in 1956, where Alva practiced pediatrics. She retired in 1989, after 43 years as a physician.
During her career, Dr. Blaine was the Secretary and a member of the Board of Censors of the Nueces County Medical Society, served in various capacities with the Corpus Christi and Texas Pediatric Societies, and was a member of the Texas Medical Association and the American Medical Association. She became the highly respected Chief of Staff of Spohn Hospital in 1976.
In retirement, Alva and Mose moved to Georgetown, Texas for 17 years from 1997 to 2014. While there, Alva was an avid duplicate bridge player, continued to own and operate an antiques business that she had begun while in Corpus Christi, and was active in several volunteer activities. Upon returning to Corpus Christi in October, 2014, Alva lived at the Mirador Retirement Community and later at the Brookdale Holmgreen Center.
Alva Blaine is remembered in the community as a smart and caring pediatrician, always beautifully dressed, with sparkling blue eyes and a big smile. She is remembered by her family as a loving wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother who loved foreign travel and who was generous, sweet, sometimes silly to the point of giggles, and full of fun. She was greatly loved and will be deeply missed.
Dr. Blaine is survived by her husband of 71 years, Mose H. Blaine, Jr., two children: Michael L. Blaine (and wife Laurie) of Corpus Christi and Barbara S. Blaine (King) of Washington, DC; five grandchildren: Michael T. Blaine (and wife Sarah), James R. Blaine, Suzanne E. Blaine, Lindsay King Arnoult (and husband Olivier) and Blaine C. King; and three great-grandchildren: Michael T. Blaine, Jr., Katelyn Blaine, and Zoé Arnoult.

A celebration of Alva Blaine's life will be held at the chapel at Mirador Retirement Community