Eudora ? Kenneth Holladay knew when he was in grade school that he was going to be a physician.

He was, and there are at least 1,440 people who are glad of it. By his own calculations that’s how many babies “Doc Holladay” delivered in 43 years of practicing medicine.

“There are probably more than that,” Holladay said. “You don’t realize how many there were until you start adding them up.”

Holladay won’t be delivering any more babies. He won’t be treating any more illnesses, either. The 70-year-old Eudora physician has retired. Sunday afternoon hundreds of his patients, many of whom were among those babies he delivered, gathered at Kim’s Barn south of Eudora to wish him well.

“He was more like a family doctor than a lot of doctors are,” said Sally Hague, 32, Lawrence. Not only was Hague delivered by Holladay but so was one of her three children.

“I remember being frightened when I was about to have my first child,” said Delores Stiffler, 57, Eudora. “He made it easier. He has been just a wonderful doctor.”

“He was the kind of person you could call anytime,” said Pam Trefz-Staub. “He was a real integral part of the community.”

Pat Pyle, formerly of Eudora and now living in Olathe, agreed. “He’s the best doctor you can ever have. I could talk to him about anything. It was about like having him as a counselor.”

Holladay’s wife, Elisabeth, watched as a long line of well-wishers waited for their turn to shake hands or hug her husband. Many had their pictures taken with him.

“It was wonderful, but it was a real challenge,” Elisabeth Holladay said of being the wife of a small-town physician who was always on call. She remembers him rushing out of the house at night, shoes untied, clothes askew, to go deliver another baby.

“When we got married he told me that medicine would come first and ‘you’re second,'” Elisabeth said. “I cried, but I made the best of it. I’ve enjoyed it.”

Holladay doesn’t regret the many hours he spent tending to patients at the expense of personal time.

“I was called to do this,” he said. “This is what the Lord wanted me to do.”

But Holladay also said he welcomed retirement. Changes in medical practice were numerous, especially in the way doctors have to deal with health insurance, he said.

“I’m ready,” he said of retirement. The Holladays plan to continue living in Eudora but also will spend considerable time traveling, they said.

Holladay is being replaced in Eudora by Dr. Daniel Dickerson, who has been practicing with Holladay for the past two years.

“I’m going to have to fill his shoes,” Dickerson, 40, said as he shook his head and looked around at the crowd.

Dickerson, a Belton, Mo., native, is a graduate of Kansas University Medical School and formerly worked at St. Luke’s Hospital and the Shawnee Mission Medical Center group.