Editing Walker Percy (section)

== Illness and death ==
Percy underwent an operation for [[prostate cancer]] on March 10, 1988, but it had already [[metastasized]] to surrounding tissue and [[lymph nodes]].{{sfnp|Tolson|1998|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=6XHf0N6lzxQC&pg=PA301 301]}} In July 1989, he volunteered to allow his doctors at the [[Mayo Clinic]], in [[Rochester, Minnesota]], to use experimental medicines. Percy enrolled in a pilot study to test the effects of the drugs [[interferon]] and [[fluorouracil]] in cancer patients. In his correspondence with Foote, Percy expressed frustration over the frequent travel and hospital stays: "Hospitals are no place for anyone, let alone a sick man."{{sfnp|Tolson|1998|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=6XHf0N6lzxQC&pg=PA302 302]}}<ref name="LawlerSmith2013">{{cite book|author1=Peter Augustine Lawler|author2=Brian A. Smith|title=A Political Companion to Walker Percy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rSQRAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA27|date=19 July 2013|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|isbn=978-0-8131-4189-3|page=27}}</ref> Although the [[side effects]] of the experimental treatment were debilitating, Percy had a revelation when he saw children with cancer waiting in the lounges. He decided to continue the treatment at Mayo as long as he could so that the results of his treatment might be of value to others.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://isi.org/intercollegiate-review/walker-percy-and-suicide/|title=Walker Percy and Suicide|date=8 October 2014|publisher=[[Intercollegiate Studies Institute]]}}</ref>

He died of prostate cancer at his home in Covington in 1990, eighteen days before his 74th birthday.<ref name="NYTimes Obituary">{{cite news|title=Walker Percy, Is Dead at 74; A Novelist of the New South|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/11/obituaries/walker-percy-is-dead-at-74-a-novelist-of-the-new-south.html|work=The New York Times|date=11 May 1990 |access-date=7 May 2014|last1=Pace |first1=Eric }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Mattix|first=Micah|title=Whither Walker Percy?|url=http://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2010/05/whither-walker-percy|work=First Things|date=10 May 2010 |access-date=7 May 2014}}</ref> He is buried on the grounds of [[St. Joseph Benedictine Abbey]], in [[St. Benedict, Louisiana]]. He had become a secular [[oblate]] of the Abbey's monastic community, making his final [[oblation]] on February 16, 1990, less than three months before his death.<ref>[http://plasticbeatitude.wordpress.com/2011/05/10/remembering-walker-percy-as-a-benedictine-oblate/ "Remembering Walker Percy as a Benedictine Oblate"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111111220815/http://plasticbeatitude.wordpress.com/2011/05/10/remembering-walker-percy-as-a-benedictine-oblate/ |date=2011-11-11 }}, Plastic Beatitude blog.</ref>