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Several pictures of doctors who are featured on the Local Legends web site

MEET LOCAL LEGEND: Eleanor Eller, M.D.

Picture of Eleanor Eller

Eleanor Eller, M.D.

“I told my teachers I wanted to be a nurse…and they told me to go to medical school!”

NOMINATING CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVE

Artur Davis

“DEDICATED TO A HEALTHY SUMTER COUNTY!”

BIOGRAPHY

How lucky can one of the poorest, most rural, medically underserved counties in Alabama get!

In the late 1970s, Eleanor Eller moved to Livingston and opened her practice in pediatrics. Ever since, the Canadian native, who trained as a physician at world–renowned McGill University, in Montreal, has been a medical mainstay in Sumter County and the western region of Alabama.

Said a grateful patient whose leg Eller had saved after he was bitten by a Brown Recluse spider, “Without a doubt, she could have chosen and practiced medicine in any city in the United States, and would have done well. Not only has she provided excellent medical advice and treatment for our area, more importantly, she has given us the confidence that a caring and very qualified individual is available to take care of even the worst emergencies.”

As Medical Director of the Rush Medical Group, in Livingston, and the Medical Director of the Sumter Health and Rehabilitation Center, in York, Eller has worked unstintingly for the residents of Sumter County, which is reportedly “as rural as a rural community in Alabama gets. People are poor; health care is hard to come by and even harder for most people to afford.”

Eller migrated to the U.S. in the early 1960s, specializing in pediatrics at Saint Christopher's Hospital in Philadelphia. After serving in several academic positions at the University of Colorado Medical Center, in Denver, and at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, she moved to Sumter County and opened her office in 1979.

To this day, she continues to be involved in every aspect of the Sumter medical community through her clinic, the Sumter Nursing Home–which she served as medical director for seventeen years, Hill Hospital, Druid City Hospital, the Sumter Health and Rehabilitation Center—as medical director, the Sumter County Medical Society, the Sumter County Emergency Medical Services Board and the Alabama Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

“On countless occasions she has provided wise counsel and guidance for the many health related issues involving the University of West Alabama,” notes its president, biology professor Richard Holland. “She has provided "shadowing" opportunities for many of our healthcare students and served as a role model for many who are now physicians or health care providers in Alabama and across the region.”

Beyond her medical practice, Eller dedicates quite a lot of time to various local civic and arts organizations, including serving on the advisory Board for the Sumter County Extension Service, helping to sponsor the Sumter County Fine Arts Council and being a member of the Friends of the Coleman Center, a regional art and cultural organization located in York.

The co–author of several articles on chromosomal and genetic abnormalities, she belongs to numerous local, regional and national professional and scientific societies. She was named Sumter County Emergency Medical Services "Physician of the Year" two years running, from 1998 through 1999, and was honored by the Alabama Nursing Home Association with its 1997 "Who's Who in Long Term Care in Alabama" award.

MILESTONES

1967

Appointed Instructor in Pediatrics, University of Colorado Medical Center, Denver

1970

Becomes Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

1983

Joins Rush Medical Group Livingston Center as a family physician

BORN

1937

MEDICAL SCHOOL

McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

SPECIALTY

Pediatrics


Sub Specialty

Child Development

LOCATION

Alabama