[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Pages 22185-22186]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          TRIBUTE TO EULA HALL

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I rise before you today to honor a 
great humanitarian and fellow Kentuckian, Eula Hall.
  Over 30 years ago Ms. Hall opened a medical clinic in Pike County, 
KY, at a time when very few people had medical insurance. Such is her 
dedication to the people of eastern Kentucky she soon gave up her home 
to house the expanding clinic, moving herself and her young family into 
much smaller housing.
  At 78 years old Ms. Hall continues to work in the clinic every day, 
usually starting at 8 in the morning and going late into the evening.
  Recently the Kentucky General Assembly passed a resolution to rename 
Kentucky highway 979 the Eula Hall Highway. On October 24, 2006 The 
Pike County News Express profiled Eula Hall and her accomplishments and 
sacrifices for the people of Kentucky.
  I ask unanimous consent that the full article be printed in the 
Record and that the entire Senate join me in paying respect to this 
beloved Kentuckian.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record as follows:

           [From the Pike County News Express, Oct. 24, 2006]

      KY 979 Through Mud Creek To Be Renamed ``Eula Hall Highway''

       Friday, October 27, at 1:30 in the afternoon, friends and 
     colleagues of Eula Hall are invited to gather at the Mud 
     Creek Clinic on KY 979 at Grethel to celebrate the life and 
     accomplishments of a brave mountain woman. As a result of a 
     resolution passed unanimously by the Kentucky General 
     Assembly the entire road KY 979 from Harold to Hi Hat--will 
     be re-named Eula Hall Highway. The resolution was introduced 
     by State Rep. Chuck Meade and State Senator Johnny Ray 
     Turner.
       For the past 40 years, Eula Hall had probably traveled Mud 
     Creek--Kentucky Route 979--more than anyone else. She was a 
     woman with a mission to bring quality health care to people 
     who had no medical insurance and not enough money to pay for 
     things like visits to the doctor, shots, prescription 
     medicine, much less surgery, physical therapy, and other more 
     expensive treatments and procedures. She's made it her life's 
     work to make sure that no one within her reach goes without 
     the basic health care they need to live full productive 
     lives.
       And now that road where it all started, the two-lane state 
     highway that runs through Mud Creek from Harold to Hi Hat, 
     will be renamed Eula Hall highway in honor of the woman who 
     brought hope and healing to thousands. ``She had little 
     education. She had no financial resources of her own. She had 
     five children to raise by herself. By all accounts her life 
     should have barely been noticed outside of the family and 
     close friends,'' said Sara George, Information Officer for 
     Highway District 12. ``But if you think like that, you don't 
     think like Eula Hall. She never met a problem she couldn't 
     face head on, never met a person she couldn't relate to, and 
     never took `no' for an answer when it came to the health and 
     well being of the people of her neck of the woods. She is 
     humble, yet tough; gracious yet tenacious; and she is 
     probably the most revered, respected, and loved person in Mud 
     Creek, and rightly so.''
       Eula looks at her life from a practical viewpoint. 
     ``Nothing won't happen if you sit back and watch the 
     suffering of other people.'' It's a simple motto and one that 
     she lives by.
       More than 30 years ago, Hall opened the Mud Creek Clinic in 
     Floyd County to serve the needs of people without health 
     insurance or money to pay their doctors' bills. ``I seen so 
     much suffering, since I was a little girl. There was no 
     affordable health care at all for people without health 
     insurance, people without money. We just stayed home, sick or 
     whatever. People died for lack of a tetanus shot or 
     something,'' she told the Courier Journal last year.
       The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's Executive Director 
     for Highway District 12, Danl Hall, will emcee a ceremony 
     that will feature speakers such as Senator Turner, Rep. 
     Meade, Social Security Administration Area District Manager 
     Jim Kelly and Big Sandy Health Care CEO Ancil Lewis. U.S. 
     Congressman Hal Rogers will be represented by Tonya Conn.
       Born in Greasy Creek in Pike County, Eula didn't start 
     school until she was nine years old. She remembers crying on 
     her last day of the eighth grade because she knew she 
     couldn't continue her education. The closest high school was 
     about 20 miles away, and there was no school bus that came 
     that far out in the county. She had six brothers and sisters; 
     her parents didn't have a car; and as farm workers they 
     certainly didn't have the money for boarding school or 
     college.
       Years later, as a young mother raising five children on her 
     own, she realized anew the terrible toll that lack of proper 
     health care took on people without money or insurance. She 
     organized screening using medical students from UK and 
     Vanderbilt as well as volunteer nurses and physicians. They 
     found undiagnosed tuberculosis, pneumoconiosis (black lung), 
     diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure. In 1973 she 
     managed to get a clinic licensed to operate on Mud Creek in 
     Floyd County. The Mud Creek Clinic opened in a rented house 
     on Tinker Fork, which it quickly outgrew. Hall moved the 
     facility to her own home on Mink Branch. Her house was bigger 
     and easier to get to. But it meant moving her family into a 
     mobile home.
       Eula Hall picked up patients and took them home because 
     many of them had no transportation, or at least none that was 
     reliable. She delivered food and medicine. Now

[[Page 22186]]

     she even works to get people their rightful Social Security 
     and other benefits, winning more cases than some attorneys, 
     according to many observers.
       By 1977 the clinic merged with Big Sandy Health Care, which 
     remains its parent organization today.
       Five years later, the clinic burned to the ground. ``We 
     didn't miss a day,'' Hall recalled. ``We set up shop on a 
     picnic table under the trees.''
       The new Mud Creek Clinic opened in 1984, thanks to $320,000 
     from the Appalachian Regional Commission and dozens of quilt 
     raffles, chicken and dumpling dinners, a radio-thon, and 
     other local fundraising efforts.
       Now there are 24 employees, including two full-time 
     physicians, a full-time certified physician assistant, and a 
     part-time doctor. The clinic is housed in a modern brick 
     building with another facility behind it that houses a dental 
     clinic and food pantry. Eula Hall is 78 years old, but still 
     goes to work at 8 o'clock every morning.
       Last year Eula was presented an honorary doctorate from 
     Berea College at the same ceremony which honored Archbishop 
     Desmond Tutu, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. She also 
     holds an honorary doctorate from Trinity College, Harford, 
     Connecticut, and one from the Pikeville College School of 
     Osteopathic Medicine.
       ``I appreciate (the awards),'' she said. ``But I never done 
     anything to get awards. I do it because I need to. Somebody 
     needs to.''
       Clinic patients, neighbors and friends, and many local 
     elected and appointed government officials will come together 
     on Friday to honor Eula Hall once again, this time by naming 
     in her honor the road she's traveled so many years. The 
     public is invited to attend and join Eula afterwards for a 
     reception hosted by Big Sandy Health Care.

                          ____________________