Dr. Lillian Ruth Blackmon Crenshaw, a national medical leader in the care of premature infants, died of Lewy body disease Feb. 25 at her Guilford home. She was 87.

Born in Benton, Arkansas, she was the daughter of George Truett Blackmon, a religion professor, and Bessie Hicks Blackmon, a teacher. A 1959 graduate of Ouachita Baptist University, she was one of the first female students to attend what is now the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

She had additional studies at UCLA, the University of Colorado Medical Center, the Children’s Hospital of California, Columbia University and the Benioff Children’s Hospital at the University of California, San Francisco.

“Her training and early work in Oakland, New York, and San Francisco placed her at the epicenter of the cultural changes of the 1960s, providing care to infants from Oakland, Harlem, and then the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco,” said her stepson, Hugh Charles Crenshaw.

She held posts at the Medical College of Georgia and at Duke University’s Division of Perinatology, where she worked with Dr. M. Carlyle Crenshaw Jr., who specialized in high-risk pregnancies. They married in 1979.

She and her husband moved to Baltimore in 1980 and collaborated at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. She was director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. and he chaired the Obstetrics and Gynecology. She retired in 2006.

In an article published by Ouachita Baptist University, she said, “Two-pound babies had a 10% probable survival at the time I was learning how to take care of them. By 1995-97, their survival rates were approaching 80%. My drive was finding a better way to take care of babies and treat what their limits and problems were.”

The couple, who had been married for 16 years, sometimes treated the same high-risk babies — he in delivery and she in the hospital’s critical-care nursery.

“My mother’s adult life was dedicated to improving the care and access to care for mothers and infants,” said son, Hugh.

Dr. Christopher Harman, a University of Maryland colleague said she was a pioneer in identifying the need for fetal care before a baby was born and then took appropriate action.

“She and her husband perfected a model for the delivery of children,” Dr. Harman said.

She was a past chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Fetus and Newborn.

At the University of Maryland, she oversaw major renovations for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. She spearheaded the creation of Maryland’s Fellowship Program in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, training future practitioners and leaders.

“She was a generous donor to continuing education to the University of Maryland and other schools,” said her stepdaughter, Faith Millspaugh of Baltimore.

The Academy of Pediatrics in Maryland and the March of Dimes honored her with awards. She was given the University of Maryland’s School of Medicine Dean’s Distinguished Gold Medal for Achievement in 2016.

In retirement, she devoted much of her time to Woodbrook Baptist Church, where she held numerous offices and was a sought-after Sunday school teacher.

“She was much regarded professionally at the church,” said a close friend, Debbie Riley. “She had her hands in every aspect of the church, except the choir because she wasn’t musical. She was no-nonsense and could be intimidating if you didn’t know her lighter side. She was a serious, inspiring person and a consummate leader. Things would go much better if you did what Lillian told you to do.”

A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday at Woodbrook Baptist Church, 25 Stevenson Lane.

Survivors include three stepsons, Marion Carlyle Crenshaw III, of Baltimore; William Frank Crenshaw, of Jacksonville, North Carolina; and Hugh Charles Crenshaw, of Durham, North Carolina; a stepdaughter, Faith Millspaugh of Baltimore; nine step-grandchildren; and two nieces. Her husband, Dr. Carlyle Crenshaw, died in 1995.

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