Born on April 23, 1873 in Lexington, Kentucky, Linda Neville devoted much of her life to the welfare of children and the prevention of blindness in Kentucky. Her father, John Henry Neville, was a professor of Greek and Latin at Kentucky University (now Transylvania University) and later at the University of Kentucky. Her mother, Mary Payne, was from a prominent Lexington family. She had one sister, Mary. Neville received a bachelor's degree in Greek and Latin from Bryn Mawr College in 1895, then returned to Lexington where she taught children out of her home and devoted much of her time to charity and juvenile court boards. In the summer of 1908, Neville accepted an invitation from her friend and fellow Lexington native Katherine Pettit to visit the Hindman Settlement School, located in the eastern Kentucky mountains of Knott County. While there, she witnessed many people with sight-related problems and learned of the prevalence of trachoma, a highly contagious form of conjunctivitis and a major cause of blindness in eastern Kentucky. Neville made it her priority to help these people, bringing back with her on that first trip the first of many patients to come to Lexington for medical treatment. Neville often personally subsidized these patients and even opened her home to them while they received treatment in Lexington. In 1908, Neville established the Mountain Fund which enabled her to accept donations from family and friends to support the cause.
In cooperation with private practice oculists, Neville also helped set up trachoma clinics around the Kentucky mountains. In addition to her work with trachoma, Neville helped to maintain several venereal clinics throughout Kentucky with the hope of reducing the number of newborns with eye problems caused by gonorrhea and syphillis. In 1910, Neville founded the Kentucky Society for the Prevention of Blindness and became Executive Secretary. In conjunction with her work, she helped draft laws and lobbied successfully for legislation which struck at the causes of blindness. Among her other activities, Neville was a Field Representative for the American Red Cross from 1919 to 1924, was a member of the Kentucky Child Welfare Commission, served on the State Board of Charities and Corrections from 1924-1928 (which later became the Department of Welfare), and served for many years as a consultant to the National Society for the Prevention of Blindness. She also organized a nationwide network of health reformers with whom she consulted over the years. Linda Neville received much recognition for her work towards the prevention of blindness. Most notably, the St. Louis Society for the Blind awarded her with the Leslie Dana Gold Medal in 1944. Neville adopted two children whom she met as a result of her work, David Neville Devary and Joanna Pennington. Linda Neville died on June 2, 1961 and is buried in the Lexington Cemetery.
From the description of Linda Neville papers, 1783-1974. (University of Kentucky Libraries). WorldCat record id: 13800275
