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By MARTY CLEARA two-time president of the state association, Dr. Pitts also hosted community service events.
DR. REGINALD WAYNE PITTS, 1936-2005
TAMPA - At age 10, Wayne Pitts discovered his purpose in life.
He suffered from asthma, and doctors didn't seem to be able to help. Then his parents took him to see a chiropractor in Palmetto. After that, his asthma was gone.
"From that day on, he wanted to be a chiropractor," said his wife, Connie Pitts. "That's all he ever wanted to be."
In fact, Dr. Pitts became a highly regarded chiropractor in the Tampa Bay area, with clinics in Tampa and Seffner. He served four times as president of the Hillsborough County Chiropractic Society, and he was one of the few people to serve twice as president of the Florida Chiropractic Association.
He died Oct. 21 at age 69.
Reginald Wayne Pitts, who was always known as Wayne, was born in Brooksville but raised in Ruskin. His father worked for a fruit packing company. The family would spend most of the year in Florida, traveling only to Spartanburg, S.C., for peach season before returning to the Sunshine State.
He graduated from Wimauma High School and Florida State University before attending the National College of Chiropractic.
In 1969, he opened the Pitts Chiropractic Clinic in Tampa. He opened a second clinic in Seffner in the 1980s.
He met Connie, his second wife, when she came to see him as a patient. She later came to work for him, but they didn't start dating until after she had moved to another job. They married in 1973. He already had two grown children, and he adopted her three children.
Through his practice, he was able to indulge his two passions: chiropractic and community service.
Several times a year, both of Pitts' Chiropractic Clinics would offer "Give-a-Weeks," in which anyone who walked through the door was offered virtually free treatment.
"All they had to do was bring a food item or a toy, and they'd get an adjustment, X-rays, whatever they needed," his wife said.
Donated items went to the couple's church, Bell Shoals Baptist, and were distributed to needy people.
Besides providing treatment for people who needed it, Give-a-Week offered a chance for people to experience chiropractic for the first time. It wasn't unusual, Mrs. Pitts said, for patients to use the offer to make their first visit to a chiropractor, and then become devoted patients of Dr. Pitts or other chiropractors.
If they needed chiropractic care but couldn't afford it, they could still get treatment at Dr. Pitts' clinics.
"We never turned anyone away because of money," Mrs. Pitts said. "Never once."
In the last few years of his practice, Dr. Pitts started an annual Thanksgiving dinner for patients who would otherwise be alone. The Sunday before Thanksgiving, Mrs. Pitts would prepare a turkey, staff members would provide side dishes and transportation, and a couple of dozen patients would come to the clinic for a holiday feast.
Four years ago after he was diagnosed with lung cancer, Dr. Pitts sold his practice, including his clinic at Linebaugh and Armenia avenues. The doctor who bought the Seffner clinic asked Dr. Pitts to stay, so he worked a couple of days a week until he finally retired in December 2002. He lived in Brandon.
He retired only because the cancer made it too difficult for him to work on patients, his wife said.
"He loved adjusting people," she said. "He always missed that."
In addition to his wife, Dr. Pitts is survived by his children, Steven Lee Pitts, Lee Ann Mitchell, Laurie Kelley Knight, Mark Allen Pitts and Jacqueline Susann Kennedy; and 10 grandchildren.