Several thousand people fled the city, but Lou stayed to nurse the sick,[3][4] feed the hungry, and prepare the dead for funerals.
[1] The award is named in honor of Lou Wooster,[2][3][4] the 19th-century Birmingham madam who risked her own death by staying in the city to care for the sick and dying during the 1873 cholera epidemic.
[1] When she died in May 1913, hundreds of empty black carriages drove by the funeral home to pay respects to a local hero.
[1][2][4] Recipients are driven by a horse-drawn carriage from the School of Public Health to Oak Hill Cemetery where Lou Wooster is buried.
In 2012 the VF Corporation[4][6] was recognized for its decision to rebuild the Hackleburg, Alabama Wrangler Distribution Center destroyed by the April 27, 2011 tornado.