Funeral services will be Monday for a prominent Pikeville physician who died in a motorcycle crash on Friday night.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol said Dr. David Leon McKinney Jr. lost control of his motorcycle while traveling east on Highway 30 on Dayton Mountain.
He was trying to pass a tractor trailer and a pickup truck going down the mountain when a vehicle came around a curve in his direction. He ran off the roadway as he tried to get back into the eastbound lane.
His motorcycle went into a ditch, then struck a driveway embankment. Dr. McKinney went airborne and landed in a tree line thicket.
Dr. McKinney, 49, was dead at the scene.
A member of First Southern Baptist Church, he received his B.A. from Baylor University in 1987, and graduated with his doctorate from the University of North Texas Health Science Center in 1991. He was awarded East Tennessee State University Resident of the year in 1994, elected to Alpha Omega Alpha National Medical Honor Society in 1994, and was named Chief Medicine Resident, Holston Valley Medical Center, ETSU Dept of Internal Medicine 1994-1995. He was board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in 1995. He was the Assistant Clinical Professor at Nova Southeastern University Medical School.
He was appointed chief of staff at Cumberland Medical Center. He also served as the Emergency Room Director, the Regional Medical Director for Team Health, served as the Medical Examiner for both Bledsoe and Cumberland Counties, and was the medical director for the Bledsoe County EMS.
Throughout his career, Dr. McKinney played an intricate roll in the education of many medical students as well as many other medical staff that worked closely with him, it was stated.
Dr. McKinney was survived by his wife of 20 years, Rebecca Barnett McKinney; son, Seth Barnett McKinney; and daughter, Molly Addison McKinney, all of Pikeville; mother, Camilla Agee McKinney, Winona, TX; two brothers, Tommy McKinney, Dallas, TX, and Josh McKinney, Winona, TX; two sisters, Nikki Bell and Brandi McKinney, Kosciusko, MS; in-laws, Ron and Sherry Barnett.
Visitation will be Monday from 5-7 p.m. CDT. prior to the services at 7 p.m. in the chapel of Putnam-Reed Funeral Home, Hwy. 127 South, Pikeville.