Sterling family seeking memories of Dr. Monte

STERLING – The warm, caring personality of Dr. LaMonte "Monte" Ballard was well known to the people he cared for in Sterling and Rock Falls for more than 40 years.

On the 10-year anniversary of his death, which will be June 26 next year, his daughter and granddaughter hope to memorialize stories of the late doctor in a book.

“People stop me, and have a story to tell me about him,” daughter Kathy Ballard said in an interview at her Sterling home Wednesday. She hopes stories of his life and work will come pouring out.

Born just south of Thunder Basin National Grassland in Douglas, Wyoming, on July 16, 1934, Ballard grew up “dirt poor,” his daughter said.

What money he had saved in high school for college had been siphoned from his bank account by an alcoholic father, she said. He fought hard to put himself through medical school in Colorado, and graduated in 1959.

He moved to Sterling with his wife, Sally, in 1961, and partnered with established physician Peter T. Gray, M.D.

Over the course of his 45-year career, Ballard delivered more than 5,000 Sauk Valley babies.

“People just took to him,” Kathy said. “He was just an old country boy. When he wasn’t working, he was hunting.”

The family physician, best known locally for his philosophy of “seeing anybody,” often rode a bicycle to work, and he didn’t care whether you had money, Kathy said.

“He was the country doctor,” she said. Because of his work ethic and charisma, many people would skip the emergency room to see Ballard, and he would oblige by making time for them.

He would accept any form of payment – including Thanksgiving turkeys – or none at all, she said. He often made house calls, especially for his elderly patients, and even worked for free on weekends.

He also was a captain in the Illinois National Guard in Rock Falls, and a member of Gideons International, speaking frequently around the area on its behalf.

His love of bicycling was the impetus for a park shelter that bears his name, built behind the Westwood Sports Complex in July 2007 and paid for with memorials and other donations.

He also was honored by his peers, who named him Illinois Rural Health Physician of the Year in 1994.

Ali Rich, 31, of Rockford, is Ballard's granddaughter. She said the idea of collecting stories and letters to make a book came from the day of his visitation.

“We ended up staying for 6 hours because there were so many people,” she said. “Every single person had a story of something Dr. Ballard had done that, to them, was above and beyond.”

Ali, a homemaker and creative writer, considered Monte a father figure, and hopes to take submitted letters and incorporate them into a biography.

Share your memories

If you'd like to contribute to the Ballard family book of memories, begin your letter with “Dear Dr. Ballard” and send it to P.O. Box 1385, Sterling, IL 61081.

The book still is in the planning phase, but Kathy and Ali would like to have a good set of letters collected by Christmas.