How the Real ‘Doc’ Holliday Found Love & Legend Early in Missouri

If you know your wild west history, you probably already know that the real John Henry 'Doc' Holliday spent some time in St. Louis, Missouri. What you might not know is how much the time in the state affected him and how he likely found love and the beginnings of his legend in the Show Me State.

As a real (albeit distant) relative of the real John Henry 'Doc' Holliday, my wife has done a ton of genealogy research on our family. Even well-traveled sites like Wikipedia document at least 4 months when Doc was in St. Louis, Missouri.  It was in St. Louis where John Henry first practiced dentistry. He and a friend had a practice in the old Planters Hotel in St. Louis that used to be on this street corner.

Back in the mid-1990's, I had a phone call from Karen Holliday Tanner who was working on a biography on John Henry 'Doc' Holliday who was tracing our family through Missouri. Victoria Wilcox is another author who has devoted much time to learning about Doc's activities in St. Louis, Missouri and she believes that not only did Doc practice dentistry there, but likely met his eventual long-time companion 'Big Nose' Kate there also.

Doc's time in St. Louis would not last long as he would venture back to Atlanta before heading west to try and rehabilitate his tuberculosis diagnosis. The history books and movies have told the story many times of his eventual friendship with Wyatt Earp (who has his own interesting Missouri connections) and what went down in Tombstone, Arizona.

I highly recommend Karen Holliday Tanner's book and also Victoria Wilcox work if you find the story of the real John Henry "Doc" Holliday and his Missouri beginnings.