Family and friends are mourning the death of a doctor with deep Oklahoma roots who was shot and killed Sunday near Kansas City, Kan.

William Lewis Corporon, 69, practiced medicine from 1976 to 2003 in Oklahoma, according to a family statement. Corporon earned his medical degree at the University of Oklahoma. He was known as the family physician in Cowboy boots and suspenders who always put his loved ones and patients ahead of himself.

“He wasn’t just a doctor; he was a really, really good friend,” said Lynn Holt, of Bray. He and his family were patients of Corporon’s for many years.

“He cared, he’d take time to answer your questions and he was real sympathetic,” said Holt, 60. “To him, you weren’t a number or a patient, you were a friend. ... After my momma died, he invited me for Christmas dinner. I went, and they treated me like family.”