[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. ____________________