Burney, IN—Today in Indiana history, the U.S. Senate confirmed President Eisenhower’s nominee for Surgeon General, Leroy Edgar Burney. Burney was born in Decatur County in Burney, a town started by his Great-Grandfather, and was educated at Butler University and Indiana University. He served as Indiana’s health officer from 1945 to 1954. As surgeon general, he was the first federal official to publicly link cigarette smoking with lung cancer.
On January 29, 1961, shortly after President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration, Surgeon General Burney stepped down from his post to give the new administration the opportunity to nominate its own choice for Surgeon General. Reforms and ideas raised during Burney’s administration would become the foundations of health policy under Presidents Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.
