Jessie Marmorston


Jessica "Jessie" Marmorston was a Russian-born American physician, endocrinologist, and medical school professor.

Early life and education

Marmorston was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, then a part of the Russian Empire, the daughter of Aaron Marmoston and Ethel Wark Marmoston. Her family was Jewish. She moved to the United States as a child, with her parents, and grew up in Buffalo, New York. She completed her medical degree at the Jacobs [School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences|University of Buffalo School of Medicine] in 1924.

Career

Marmorston served a bacteriology internship at the Montefiore Hospital in New York City. At Cornell University Medical College she worked as an immunologist with David Perla. In 1943, she became an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Southern California. In 1953 she became professor of experimental medicine, and in 1957 clinical professor of medicine. She was elected a fellow of the American College of Physicians. She held attending physician privileges at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Los Angeles County Hospital. In 1972, she was quoted in an Ann Landers column on breastfeeding, as a "distinguished endocrinologist".
While based in Los Angeles, Marmorston was the personal physician and daily confidante of studio head Louis B. Mayer. She parlayed her Hollywood connections to raise funds for USC scholarships. In 1960, the Los Angeles Times named her one of their ten Women of the Year.

Selected publications

Marmorston's research focused on the interactions of hormones, mental health, heart disease, and cancer. Her work was published in academic journals including Science, Archives of Internal Medicine, Journal of Experimental Medicine, The [Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism], American Review of Tuberculosis, The Journal of Urology, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Journal of Clinical Psychology, and Cancer Research. A selection of articles and monographs written or co-written by Marmorston suggests the range of her studies:

Personal life

Marmorston married a fellow physician, Julius Gottesman; they divorced. Her second husband was her colleague, David Perla; they married in 1933 and he died in 1940. Her third husband was film producer Lawrence Weingarten. They married in 1945, and he died in 1975. She had three daughters. One of her daughters married lawyer and diplomat Samuel Pisar. One of her granddaughters is married to financier Daniel Pinto. Jessie Marmorston died in 1980, in her late seventies or early eighties, in Los Angeles.