Portion of Pennsylvania State Road 255 Named the Dr. Betty Hayes Memorial Highway in Memory of 1936 Lewis Katz School of Medicine Graduate and Her Efforts as Coal Town Physician and Public Health Advocate

Last year, the New York Times highlighted Dr. Elizabeth Hayes in its “Overlooked” feature, a series of obituaries on remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported in the publication. Dr. Hayes graduated from the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University in 1936. In 1945, she was working as a coal town doctor and told the Shawmut Mining company that owned the town she would quit unless it addressed unsanitary conditions. About 350 miners went on strike after the company accepted her resignation. This year, on Labor Day, a portion of state road 255 in Bennetts Valley was named the Dr. Betty Hayes Memorial Highway. Pennsylvania State Rep. Mike Armanini led the effort to pass a bill designating the highway in Hayes’ memory. News coverage was provided by WTAJ, the Bradford Era and the DuBois Courier-Express.