NATCHEZ — A quick scan of the crowd at Dr. Jerry Iles’ funeral Friday would tell even a casual observer that more than just close friends and family members had come to pay respects.

But Toni Hunt and Edna Hutchins, long-time medical patients of Iles, would beg to differ, and they’d likely win that argument.

To Iles, Hunt and Hutchins said, patients were family.

“We were on a first name basis,” Hunt said. “This was my friend; he was more than my doctor.”

Fellow physician Dr. William Godfrey confirmed Hunt’s sentiments.

“(Patients) were more than just customers to him,” Godfrey said. “He cared a whole lot about them and they were his friends.”

Iles, 77, died Wednesday after battling illness but never really stepping away from his medical practice, which began in Natchez in 1963.

Forty-seven years later, Iles’ Family Medical Clinic is still the place Hunt and Hutchins rely on for their medical care.

Neither woman plans on leaving the practice anytime soon, but they admit it just won’t be the same without Iles.

“He could just look at you and know you had a problem,” Hunt said.

“And he would take extra time with you,” Hutchins said. “To give you whatever you needed.”

“He’d give you a hug if you needed it,” Hunt said.

Iles was Hunt’s doctor for more than 39 years. Hutchins started visiting the family physician 30 years ago.

“I’m going to miss him until the day I die,” Hutchins said.

The love patients — dozens more attended the funeral — like Hunt and Hutchins have for their doctor didn’t come without hard work, Godfrey said.

Iles was a doctor who was always on call, rarely rotating duties with a group of doctors, which is commonplace now.

“He would come out anytime for anybody,” Godfrey said.

That attitude and the consistency of having such a dedicated doctor in town for so many years affects the community, Godfrey said.

“It lends stability to the medical community,” he said. “It’s more and more difficult to attract young doctors to a small town now.”

But Iles was happy in Natchez, friends and family said.

“He is one of the finest people I’ve known,” Godfrey said. “He was kind, caring and personally concerned about his patients. He was just a good guy.”

Survivors include his wife Betty and two sons, Greg Iles and Geoff Iles and their families.