Man credited with county’s 1st ambulance service remembered

Published 6:30 am Thursday, April 6, 2017

Larry “Gerry” Story is a name that may not be familiar to some Limestone Countians, but history will remember him as the man who started the county’s first ambulance service.

Story died Sunday at age 69, but two people who knew him well — Sheriff Mike Blakely and Coroner Mike West — reflected Wednesday on the man and his accomplishments.

Blakely said prior to having an ambulance service, medical calls were run by McConnell Funeral Home. When Story first established an ambulance service in the early 1970s, it operated out of a mobile home off U.S. 72. and then later the basement of the Limestone County Sheriff’s Office on Green Street.

There was no E911 service in Limestone County at that time, so ambulance calls were dispatched by the Sheriff’s Office.

West was an orderly at a nursing home when Story hired him in 1974, not long after the tornado outbreak on April 3-4.

Email newsletter signup

“He thought I needed to be working on an ambulance, so he hired me,” West said. “He was a real nice guy and he had a passion for it.”

Story’s company just had two ambulances. As a sign of how much the county has grown in 40 years, Athens-Limestone Emergency Medical Services now has 10 ambulances.

After a short time as an independent, Story signed an agreement with Athens-Limestone Hospital to relocate the service there. West explained any private ambulance company would have struggled at that time because call volumes were so low.

“If we were lucky, we’d have four calls during the day and one call at night,” West said, adding he and other ambulance personnel worked as orderlies at the hospital when they weren’t running calls.

Story later left the ambulance business and worked for Saginaw, later named Delphi. He also worked for Lynn Layton Chevrolet before retiring. For the last five years, he was a courier for Athens-Limestone Hospital’s lab department.

He was also active in youth baseball and served as district administrator of American Legion Baseball.

“He was just a hell of a nice guy,” Blakely said.

The funeral for Story was Wednesday at Spry Funeral Home in Athens. He is survived by his wife, Evolyene Story; son, Donnie Story of Athens; stepsons, Tony Glen Wells of Pulaski, Tennessee, James Marvin Wells of Athens and Loyd B. Stafford of Tampa, Florida; brothers, Charles Story of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Gillman Story of Cullman; sister, Fay Beavers of Hartselle; 11 grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.