Doctor with South Carolina ties killed in Tulsa, Oklahoma, mass shooting

They’ve been divorced for 13 years, but Greenville lawyer John Reckenbeil still considers his ex-wife the love of his life.

He described her in terms that even he acknowledges could be considered hyperbole, but insists it’s not — caring, generous, selfless.

And now she is gone.

Dr. Stephanie Husen, who did her residency in Greenville, was one of four people killed Wednesday in the Natalie Medical Building on the St. Francis Hospital campus in Tulsa, Oklahoma by a patient angry with one of Husen’s colleagues.

Also killed were Dr. Preston Phillips — who had treated the gunman — Amanda Glenn, a receptionist, and William Love, a patient, according to The Associated Press.

Several people were wounded, though no one has life-threatening injuries, police Capt. Richard Meulenberg told CNN on Wednesday night.

Police said the gunman, Michael Louis, 45, bought an AR-15 style weapon hours before the shooting from a local gun shop and a semiautomatic handgun on May 29 from a pawn shop. Both weapons were used in the shootings, they said.

Police said they believe Louis killed himself.

Reckenbeil said he was at Pebble Beach in California on a 50th birthday celebration with his older brother when he heard the news.

He said the wife of a friend who still keeps in touch with Husen called him.

The news hit hard, especially when he was on the golf course and came upon a bagpiper playing “Amazing Grace.”

“I just lost it,” he said.

He and Husen met in a bar in Oklahoma City. He remembers the date — Feb. 16, 1999.

“It was fireworks,” he said.

He was in his second year of law school; she was a physical therapist recovering from a foot injury sustained in a car accident in which another driver crossed the center line, ramming into her car.

The accident, he said, made her think more seriously about going to medical school. She wanted to put people back together as she had been.

“She was brilliant,” Reckenbeil said.

She started medical school in Oklahoma while he returned to South Carolina, where the New Jersey native played soccer at the University of South Carolina and went to work for his mentor, Charles Hodge in Spartanburg.

They continued a long-distance relationship before getting married May 22, 2004 at St. Joseph’s Old Cathedral in Oklahoma City and moved to Mauldin, then Greenville after they bought a house.

Law and medicine consumed their lives but they did find time to go to Scotland, where Reckenbeil was able to play St. Andrews — the first item on his bucket list. Playing Pebble Beach was No. 2.

After they divorced in 2009, they lost touch until last year when she sent him some photos she used in a video made for their wedding rehearsal. Stashed away in a box were photos of his mother, who had died.

She knew he would want them, she said.

“A very Stephanie thing to do,” he said.

Ironically, on the flight to California he started writing a letter to send to Sen. Tim Scott and Sen. Lindsey Graham, urging them to begin working on legislation that would reduce mass shootings.

Now, he has a more personal reason to continue the fight.

This story was originally published June 3, 2022 at 2:09 PM with the headline "Doctor with South Carolina ties killed in Tulsa, Oklahoma, mass shooting."