Local midwife always gave back to those who needed her help
Published 12:08 am Wednesday, October 12, 2022
By Brad Dountz
For the Salisbury Post
SALISBURY — People can be forgotten for years after they pass away. Sometimes, it takes the efforts of those closest to those who are no longer with us to make sure their legacy lives on. Local artist Garland “Mickey” Chambers, 84, is making sure his grandmother gets the recognition she deserves even 70 years after her death.
Annie Hall Correll, Chambers’ grandmother, was born in 1883, who later became a midwife in Salisbury and beyond. According to Chambers, she “delivered most of the babies on this end of town, Black kids, and some around the county.” Correll also kept a garden in her backyard where she fed and helped people who were passing through town looking for work during the Depression.
“When they talk about people giving back to their communities and helping their communities, that was her contribution to the community. A lot of them babies she delivered, she never got paid for them. People didn’t have no money, they were starving,” Chambers said.
It seems like the biggest impact Correll had was on her own family. Her children would go on to work in education and the military.
“She delivered me, and my brother and two sisters. I never knew nothing about no hospital, not in them days. Especially for Blacks, they couldn’t do a lot of things,” Chambers said.
Correll would pass away in 1951 at the age of 68. Even though her life won’t be shared in history classes, Correll certainly did everything she could to support those around her that needed her kindness to get through the day.
“Basically her thing was delivering babies and feeding people. She was a good humanitarian,” Chambers said.

A picture of Annie Hall Correll, a midwife who helped countless people in Salisbury during the early 20th Century.