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In these times of personal arrogance and filthy lucre (Bernie Madoff) and Corporate greed (Lehman Brothers) comes the story of Mary Breckinridge that I would like to share with those that might not know who she was and what she stood for.

There was a time when people really cared about others and so starts the story of Mary Breckinridge.

Born February 17, 1881 in Memphis Tennessee, Died May 16, 1965 in Hyden Kentucky.

She was of a prominent family, granddaughter of a Vice President and daughter of a United States Ambassador to Russia.

Her first husband who she gave her heart to died after only two years of marriage. She married a second time and had two children; her second a daughter died six hours after being born. Her first born a son would die at the age of four from appendicitis which also had killed her first husband. The strain was too much and her second marriage ended when she filed for divorce and asked the court to restore her maiden name, both of which were not much heard of in that day.

Are you getting the picture of a strong women here? Wait, there is much more!

After the death of her children she turned to nursing for comfort and strength. Not to bore you here with her credentials but she had extensive training in nursing in France and England during World War I. She studied midwifery in England as there was no such schooling for that in the United States at the time. (Oh, get a picture here now, at the time there was no such school)!

She studied nursing in Switzerland, Scotland, New York, Connecticut and elsewhere. Let’s just say she studied extensively.

Mary knew that the death rate for women in childbirth in America was one of the highest in the developed world. We are in the 1920’s remember.

In her travels of the Appalachian Mountains she learned that Leslie County Kentucky had the highest maternal mortality rate in the country.

So, Mary Breckinridge comes to Hyden (Leslie County) Kentucky. At the time there were few roads in Leslie County, and is one of the most inaccessible regions of the Appalachians.

What does she do, well she rides horseback to assist mothers in giving birth. She rides throughout the region and teaches others midwifery.

She starts the Frontier Nursing Service in 1925 and sends nurses overseas for training with her inheritance from her mother. She did this until World War II made it unsafe for the nurses to travel.

They traveled on horseback and on foot to provide quality prenatal and childbirth care in the home. Mary traveled on horse back until she fell from one and walked with a cane the rest of her life. They were called the “nurses on horseback”

She started the Mary Breckinridge Hospital in Hyden, she started a nurse’s university-the first of its kind in the United States- She also had to be a fund raiser and occasionally went to New York to get the funding to keep them going.

So much more I could share but Mary was inducted into the American Nurses Association’s Hall of Fame in 1982. The Frontier Nursing Service helped Leslie County to drop well below the national average on the mortality rate. A nursing University was started, America now had midwifery school.

Folks the old cliché works here, when Mary Breckinridge was made, they broke the mold!

During these self centered idealistic and selfish times, we can reflect back on what America should be really like, a caring people like was displayed in the life and times of Mary Breckinridge.

Mary Breckinridge gave her life to help others; she accomplished so much, a true American hero!

God Bless

On this last day of October 2011, I will make this the final pic of this years fall season series. I naturally have a lot more photos of fall pics but did not want to bore you with so many and have picked out what I thought was interesting. So until next years fall season "thats all folks"!

Beverly, Kentucky