Miss Euretta Hammond, one of Knott County's most beloved and remembered teachers, celebrated her 100th birthday this past June 17. When Miss Hammond talks about her life, two elements emerge as most important--her faith in God, and her love of teaching young people.                                                     
                            
Miss Hammond says she was inspired to choose her vocation by her own second grade teacher, Miss Truman from Hindman Settlement School. Further reinforcing that desire was the fact that her father taught school, and so did her mother-until she began raising their family, Miss Hammond explains.                 

Euretta Hammond was born in Knott County and lived here all her life.  She is the daughter of Enoch and Laura Hammond. Miss Hammond taught in various places throughout Knott County, beginning as an instructor for grades one through eight.  When the county's tiny schools consolidated as the years passed, she became a third grade teacher at Hindman Elementary.  She retired in 1972, after 33 years in the classroom, but continued to substitute teach until 1981.  "It was hard for me to quit--I loved teaching," she says.                                                                        

The single most important event in her 90 years, Miss Hammond says, is when she was saved. The faith that has been part of her whole life carried her through a terrible experience two years ago when she fell and broke her leg on a cold winter day and stayed in her pump house all night and the next day until she was rescued and her prayers answered.

Though she never married and had children of her own, Miss Hammond has touched the lives of countless young people in Knott County.  Her former students remember her with warmth she feels for them. "Working with children was the best part, " Miss Hammond recalls.                                                              

Corbett Mullins
June 7, 2003