Followers of Richard Dugan abandon ‘hill', LaVita lifestyle

Reporter

tdunn@gcnewsgazette.com

There's a lot going on up on the “hill” these days - at least for a while.

Left all alone up at their remote hilltop in east Grayson County, Richard Dugan's widow, Loura, his mentally challenged brother Albert, and the last follower of the LaVita doctrine, Faith Ford, are in the process of tearing down what is left on the “Hill.”

With Dugan's memorial fresh in the memories of his family, tears still appear as his widow talked of the man she misses.

“Richard was a charitable, God fearing man. There is not a day that goes by that I do not miss him,” said Dugan's widow.

His memorial was a simple ceremony, held on the 4th of July with fewer than two dozen people in attendance.

The pastor from the Seventh Day Adventist Church that the remaining members of the LaVita Township now attend spoke at the service. Two songs Dugan wrote and recorded were played at the solemn event and a few of his followers along with members of the Grayson County community spoke words of encouragement to the mourners.

There's some dissension in the family now because Loura and Albert have been left all alone by other LaVita members, but that was set aside for the day. The message at the service was a simple one. “Richard would want you to take care of each other the way you did when he was alive,” said Grayson County Magistrate Andy Logsdon.

Now that Dugan is gone, the town of LaVita is slowly disappearing into the history books of Grayson County. Most of the members have already moved from the “Hill” taking with them the few belongings they had. And all are now out of jail.

Dugan's widow, his brother, and Ford are to be the last to go. They have made plans to move to a place near Nolin Lake.

“Albert likes the country,” said Loura Dugan. “He likes to be outdoors and to be active. He would not do well in the city. We don't like the city either. So God has given us this place out near Nolin Lake.”

With Dugan failing to pay into Social Security, his wife is faced with no income of her own. She says she's looking for a simple life without many extras.

She has hired Springer Mobile Home Recycling out of Upton Kentucky to remove the mobile homes off the hill and clear the land before turning it back over to the owner at the end of July.

Richard Springer and his son are stripping the mobile homes for the aluminum and iron and anything else that can be recycled for money.

He is splitting the fee with the remaining LaVita members fifty-fifty. Anything made from the sale of the trailers will go to help his widow, Ford and Albert to find a way to begin life off the “Hill.”

Springer will leave the hillmuch the way the Dugan and his followers found it when they began the town of LaVita.