Not too long after she earned a doctorate from Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, where she was the only African-American graduate in her class, Dr. Julie R. Butler took over the 145th Street Animal Hospital, for many years the only full-service vet clinic in Harlem.
But Dr. Butler was deeply committed to caring for animals — she knew she wanted to be a vet as a little girl growing up in New Rochelle, N.Y.
“I rarely saw my mother turn anyone away,” Zora Howard, Dr. Butler’s daughter, said.
After practicing for a few years at the ASPCA clinic in Brooklyn, Dr. Butler and her husband settled in Harlem, where at first they lived in a one-room apartment above the animal hospital.
The house was always filled with people — extended family, someone Dr. Butler knew through church who needed a place to stay, her children’s friends who appreciated her larger-than-life personality, her artistic side (she sang in a choir and made clothes) and her home-cooked meals.
