Editors

Eula Hall

October 29, 1927 – May 8, 2021

An Appalachian icon, Eula Hall, died this last weekend at age 93. Eula will be remembered for the Mud Creek Clinic she founded 50 years ago, in Floyd County Kentucky; it now carries her name, although it is run by Big Sandy Health Services, a Federally Qualified Health Center.

Eula started the clinic with a donated $1400 and committed it and herself to providing health care for her neighbors and friends in Mud Creek who were ill and couldn’t afford medical care. She persevered through many things that got in the way of her goal to see that all who needed medical care in the mountains got it.

There was a fire that nearly destroyed her first clinic. The story was told that she had the phone company install a phone on a tree so that folks could get through to the clinic the day of the fire, so no one went without health care, even if the clinic was destroyed. She was a leader of the East Kentucky Welfare Rights Organization and the President of the Kentucky Black Lung Association. She created the Mud Creek Water District so that her community could have clean drinking water. Born in poverty herself she was honored with three honorary doctoral degrees, including the University of Pikeville, and was a member of the University of Kentucky Public Health Hall of Fame.

• Mud Creek Clinic Video
• Full Obituary