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Profile 2024

A year at the top

Stephens reflects on job as Ohio speaker

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A year on the job

Stephens looks back at first half of term as speaker

It was just over a year ago when a political name, familiar to Lawrence Countians for decades, pulled off a major upset and became a force in statewide politics.

In January 2023, State Rep. Jason Stephens, R-93, of Get away, whose district also covers Gallia, Vinton and Jackson counties, was elected as speaker of the House for the state.

Stephens’ win came as a surprise to political observers, as the House Republican caucus had chosen a different pick for speaker, but, when the vote for the full House came, Stephens was able to pull away enough Republican supporters to ally with Democrats in the Chamber and win the gavel.

With a full year leading the chamber under his belt, Stephens spoke with The Ironton Tribune in February about his time on the job.

“We have not had a representative from Lawrence County in the statehouse since 1993,” Stephens, who was appointed to his four-county legislative seat, previously held by the retiring Republican Ryan Smith, said. “Of course, we had good represen tatives, they just weren’t from Lawrence County. And the last Republican representative from Lawrence County was Oakley Collins in 1974. So it had been a while since a Lawrence Countian had roamed the halls of the statehouse.”

Stephens said one thing he has had to do since arriving in Colum bus is introducing the county to others.

“What was really interesting to me was the number of people who didn’t know where Lawrence County is,” he said. “They knew I was from down south when they heard me talk, but they didn’t know exactly where Lawrence County was. We all get those questions – ‘Is that close to Chillicothe or Marietta?’ Just knowing and being able to be a voice for our area — it’s really important and puts us on the map. Were part of Ohio and what makes Ohio great.”

Stephens was born in Lawrence County and grew up as a child “out 775” before the family relocated for his father’s UPS job, liv

STORY & PHOTOS BY HEATH HARRISON, SUBMITTED

ing in Belpre, Ohio, Cumberland, Maryland and then Princeton, West Virginia, where he graduated high school. He never severed his ties to the Tri-State though, noting he spent his summers with his grandparents in Rome Township as the family moved around.

Following high school, Stephens attended Lipscomb University in Nashville and, after graduation, took a job with Bankers Trust doing record keeping and handling 401k plans.

“It was a large merchant bank and I was on the corporate track,” he said.

But, when his grandmother retired from Stephens and Sons insurance in Lawrence County, he moved home with his wife, Juli.

“The plans was to start working for the family business as a financial planner and insurance agent,” he said.

And it was shortly after that, in 1997, that he was drawn into politics. He and his wife were attending one of the Lawrence County Republican Party’s annual Lincoln Day dinners at the Grandview Inn, when he was approached about running for county commission.

“I was too young to know better and said yes,” Stephens said of his campaign, which took place the following year.

He came in second in a three-way primary that year, but, two years later, he made another run and won the seat, taking office in 2001 at the age of 29.

He recalls that he and Huntington, West Virginia Mayor David Felinton both won on the same night and were featured in local media as the first from Generation X to win office in the Tri-State.

Stephens was reelected two times as commission and, midway through his third term, in 2010, he ran for and was elected as Lawrence County auditor, succeeded the retiring Ray “Moose” Dutey in that office.

He was re-elected two more times to that office and served until 2018, when he was appointed to Smith’s statehouse seat.

Stephens has also served as the county’s Republican executive chair since 2017, having served as vice chair under Dutey for 15 years prior.

“ ”

When asked why he decided to speak the top spot in the House, Stephens replied, “I think the speakership in especially in any legislative body is extremely important.”

“Ohio is such a large state. It is really important for an area like ours to make sure our voices are heard,” He said. “And my experience in local government gave me the skill set to be able to handle all the things that can come through a government position like this.”

He spoke of how local politics had prepared him for the position.

“From a young age and, for two decades of serving, you learn how to listen and enact things,” he said. “You know how government works — a lot of the laws passed are implemented at county level. County auditors do that and county commissioners do it as well. Having that firsthand knowledge is something we needed in the state. Many years, we would sit in the courthouse and have a bill or a law passed that was adverse to county government one way or the other. I just felt like that voice was needed.”

Initially, Stephens’ election as speaker was a point of contention in state politics, with the state Republican Party even going so far as to pass a censure resolution against him and his supporters.

Ohio is such a large state. It is really important for an area like ours to make sure our voices are heard. And my experience in local government gave me the skill set to be able to handle all the things that can come through a government position like this.

— Jason Stephens

But, over the following year, that discord seems to have dwindled and House Republicans have shown unity, with Stephens noting they passed 80 percent of the caucus’s agenda.

“I go back to working with people in the Lawrence County Courthouse,” Stephens said of dealing with the atmosphere in the statehouse. “It teaches you how to work with folks you may not necessarily agree with. I know, in my experience there. You work to find common ground and, if you are able to – you put the people first and you’re able to govern in a way that is helpful to the community or the state. I think the way we are able to do those things, whether it is the tax cuts, the budget, the transportation budget or redistricting — just having that stability is important. It’s politics. There’s always noise in politics. That’s why everyone likes to watch it. But we are trying to make Ohio better.”

Stephens notes that the theme of the House has been “Make Ohio our Home.”

“It’s been a really successful general assembly for Ohio and, in particular, our part of Ohio in Appalachia, whether it is school funding or road funding. And we increased funding for is Medicaid, which is big for our health care. Whether people are on Medicaid or not, it is good for our area. And, at the same time doing that, we’re cutting taxes. Those are the kind of good, conservative

policies that make our economy grow, and I think that’s part of reason things have settled down a bit.”

Stephens spoke of misconceptions some may have about Lawrence County and the surrounding area.

“Our area in particular is not as rural as think we are,” he said. “Lawrence County is big enough, being part of HuntingtonAshland area, if where we live was all in Ohio, we’d be the ninth largest metro area in the state. We have big city problems, but small county budgets — and that’s something we’ve always had to deal with.”

Stephens said, while he knew Ohio is extremely diverse, his first year as speaker has re-enforced to him all the state has to offer.

“I’m amazed every day, whenever I get to travel in Ohio,” he said. “It’s been amazing to see how much stuff goes on, whether it is manufacturing or the financial industry. There are just so many things our nation and world relies on Ohio for — everything from medical equipment to Dum Dum suckers to NFL footballs to pizza rolls that are made in Jackson. We’ve got both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Football Hall of Fame.“

But he says, in these travels, communication is key.

“I’ve found that people are people,” he said. “It doesn’t take

much time to listen. If you can listen, you can find out what the needs are — at any level of public service, whether you’re a school board member or a trustee or county official or speaker of the House.“

Stephens was asked about his proudest accomplishment he oversaw in his first year as speaker.

“Well, I think for our region, it was securing funding for the Chesapeake Bypass and outer belt project,” he said. “That is something our region has been working on for decades. and I think one of the biggest things we’ve been able to do.”

On the statewide level, he pointed to tax cuts.

“We passed the largest income tax cuts in the state’s history, flattening our income tax rates to the 2.75 and 3.5 percent,” he said. “I thought that was really important. Also, we continue to increase funding for our public schools, but we also continued to increase the funding for our technology centers, like Collins Career Technical Center, and getting those career paths available to our young people.”

There is an eight-year term limit on House members, meaning that Stephens can run for re-election to his seat this year and in 2026. There is no limit on the speakership, other than the representative’s own term.

“Absolutely, yes,” Stephens said, when asked if he plans to seek the speakership again when the new general assembly convenes in 2025. “We’re working every day to maintain that leadership and maintain the speaker’s gavel so we can continue to do great things for Ohio.”

He was asked about his legislative priorities going forward.

“One of the things I’ve always believed in, as you continue to manage the budget, if your government stays within budget and you’re keeping those things taken of, the fundamentals, that tends to give opportunities for other things.”

He said the first priority is ensuring the state budget is in working order.

He also cited improving infrastructure as a top goal.

“More specifically, what I’d love to see is we work on our interstate system in the region,” he said. “We’ve got four-lane roads that go all the way to Cincinnati — and State Route 32 and, of course, the Portsmouth Bypass. You’ve got U.S. 23 that goes up to Columbus and, frankly, I’d like to get rid of some traffic lights

between here and there, so we don’t have to stop.”

He also cited a local project he wanted to bring movement to.

“We want to continue on the transportation side of things with the Merrick Creek bridge on the north side of the outer belt that would connect Proctorville with Barboursville. That’s a very big thing and we need to get the bypass done first, obviously.”

Stephens said he hopes to announce a series of strategic investments across the state, the details of which are to come.

“We want to try to put those things in place,” he said. “Ohio is in a position of financial strength that we haven’t seen since the 1950s or ‘60s, so we’re able to make some investments in our communities and across the state that are going to continue to bear fruit. It’s an opportunity to really change our state and have some generational change.”

It is that optimism he says he has seen grow over the decades he has served in public office.

“The one thing different from when I took office 20 years ago and became commissioner — three weeks later, Ironton Hos-

pital had closed, Cabletron had just left. We were facing a real economic crisis, frankly, in Lawrence County, in particular.”

But he said the county was able to turn that situation around.

“We were able to weather that storm with the building of the Duke Energy power plant at the time and now The Point industrial park,” Stephens said. “We have been able to turn our economy around and I kind of judge it by the fact that, when you had a conversation with people back in 2001, everybody talked about ‘back in our day’ and “Back in the ‘70s, it was great.’”

He says the mood has changed, as evidenced by people he talked to at a recent graduation at Collins Career Technical Center.

“I got to speak there this past spring,” Stephens said. “You see a different level of optimism now that I’ve never seen before. Instead of talking about 20 years ago, people are having more conversations about what’s going to happen in a year or two, ‘when I get this job,’ ‘when this road gets built’ or ‘when that comes in.’”

He says he now sees a focus on the future in the region.

“And that’s really what I’m hoping we can do with the entire state of Ohio,” Stephens said. “And you’re starting to see signs of that optimism and positivity toward the future. It just takes a lot of work, a lot of diligence on the government part to really stay out of the private sector’s way and be an assistant to success where we can.”

Despite his big role in state government, Stephens said he still loves to speak with his constituents back home.

“The great thing about Lawrence Countians, they will tell you exactly how they feel, and that really is a great thing,” he said “Me and my family really appreciate all the support Lawrence County has shown us for 25 years now. It’s really quite amazing. I’m just really proud to live in Lawrence County and want to continue serving Lawrence County as long as I can.” 

For John Horst, when it came time to venture into the world beyond college, he decided to find a path based on what he knew and loved.

“I had to find what I wanted to do, workwise,” he said. “I had all kinds of jobs - many, many jobs, ever since I was 16 and it just so happened that every single one of them was retail, so I guess I was kind of decent at that. That was my calling.”

Horst said the idea of owning a store was something he had started planning while at Marshall University.

“And lo and behold, the whole idea of ‘Do what you love’ rang true to me and I went,’ Well, I’m going to give it a shot.”

shop offers far more than comics and graphic novels, with statues, action figures, Funko Pops, lunchboxes and endless collectibles stacked throughout the space, covering, not just the superhero and comic genre, but also film, TV and music as well as obscure corners of pop culture.

Horst said the shop’s name has a story behind it.

It turned out to be a gamble that paid off. The store, Purple Earth Comics, located on Fourth Avenue in Huntington, has thrived and marked 30 years of operation last year.

Packed from wall to wall with merchandise, the

“When I knew what I was going to do and came up with the name. I didn’t want a simple name like ‘Comic Store’ or ‘Comic Box’ — I wanted something a little catchy, a little memorable and a little different.”

He said he envisioned the store as “a safe harbor for nerds and geeks.”

“When I started the store, I had been picked on for being one and I wanted a place where you could go and, in my part of the earth, you could come and know that you’re welcome and talk about things that you’re into,” he said.

As for the purple in the moniker, Horst said it

dates back to prehistory.

“The earth used to be purple, originally, instead of green and blue,” he said. “Just like comics, its colorful. It just kind of separated from a lot of other stores.”

Now in its second location (the original was just two doors down the street), the shop has continued to serve Tri-State fans since its move to the larger space in the early 2000s.

Horst says the customers are a mix — some he sees for only a few years, due to the transient nature of the area and it being a college town, as well as longtimers who have come in for decades.

Those who become regulars quickly find that he learns their interests and caters to their specific favorites, always letting them know when something that might be of interest to them will be offered by companies.

“And comic shops couldn’t operate without regulars,” he said. “Unlike other stores you check out once in a while, this, you have to keep coming back.”

As for Horst’s interest in the field, his origin story is two-fold. He said he was first introduced to comics around the age of five.

“My granddad would go to garage sales and rummage sales and, back then, people would put out comics because they didn’t plan on

keeping or collecting them and you could grab a handful for a dollar,” he recalls.

He said the books would be an eclectic array, with titles ranging from John Carter of Mars to Popeye to Spider-Man stories from the PBS show The Electric Company.

“Like so many kids, I looked at the pictures and then threw it down,” he said. “But, eventually, I wanted to know what was going on, I wanted to know the story, so I read it — and I gained a love of reading.”

Horst credits that early reading with helping him to excel in school.

“I learned sentence structure and I learned to write,” he said. “It broadened my mind and expanded my horizons. I learned bug words, to the point where, when I went to school, teachers thought I was plagiarizing — and that was before computers.”

He said his interest in the books eventually waned at a young age, but he was drawn back in again, like so many in the decade, through another pop culture entry point.

“In 1984, I’m into G.I. Joe,

I’m into Transformers, I’m into Thundercats, I’m into Masters of the Universe, just like almost any boy my age in the ‘80s,” he said. “But Transformers, in particular was quite a love, and they had only one cartoon and that was it.”

Horst said a friend at school informed him that there was a comic series of the characters, published by Marvel Comics, offering further, original stories.

“And that pulled me into the comic shop,” he said. “And that was an entire universe to me. I couldn’t believe there were stores that only sold that, and it blew my mind.”

And from Transformers, he said his reading expanded to all the books published by Marvel, DC and others.

“And it blew my mind. So it started out as Transformers and “It went a million different direction after that,” he said.

Now in his 31st year running the store, Horst has seen the industry undergo major changes over the course of his run.

For instance, when he opened in the early 1990s, comics were still widely available at gas stations, dug stores, department stores and newsstands. But, in 2024, they are relegated largely to the direct market of comic shops and some bookstore chains.

Horst said one of the keys to surviving changing markets is to for shops to diversify, as his has done, offering far more than just comics themselves.

“You offer cards, toys or games,” he said. “You can’t be dependent so much as books by themselves anymore. That disheartening, but, that’s to be said of other industries that have to expand beyond their core product.”

He said the biggest change is “competition for your entertainment dollar” among younger customers, as opposed to past generations.

“Just ask Bart Simpson,” he said. “Comics were what you had. But now you have Pokémon, Fortnite and so much competition.”

He said the biggest factor in that has been

the rise of Japanese manga as a big seller for younger readers, becoming the preferred characters over established superhero titles like Batman and the X-Men.

“It’s been a radical change,” he said. “Before manga affected everything, I would have said video games had become the dominant entertainment and taken away movie tickets, and from physical media in general. Now, manga is taking even more, but at least people are still reading or reading something comic-like.

He said one of the challenges for comic companies is to find entry points to lure in new readers.

“One of big promotions I’ve seen work is when Marvel and DC coordinate with video game creators,” he said, noting crossgenre offerings have drawn in children. “So what are the entry points now? We know what ours were, and the rest is history after that.”

As for what keeps him going in the business, Horst says he knows he could easily go into another field, with his capabilities and networking he’s done over the years, but he said it is the answer to a common question that is telling.

“I’ve heard many, many people ask me, ‘You’re doing it for love, aren’t you?’” he said. “Well yes, actually — I do love all this stuff. I love selling it. I love handling it. I love talking to people about it. I love reading it. I love sharing the enjoyment. I love watching kids enjoy something new and especially getting kids to read.”

— Purple Earth Comics is located at 1115 Fourth Ave. in Huntington. 

From Ironton to Hollywood

Mickey Fisher’s love of movies lead to writing, producing career

STORY & PHOTOS BY MARK SHAFFER

Alifetime ago, a young boy sat through a screening of “Star Wars” and had his mind blown by the space epic at the Midtown Cinema 3.

Years later, he got to work on his own space epic with a some of the biggest names in Hollywood as a writer and producer.

Mickey Fisher grew up in Ironton. As a six grader, he saw one of the annual Ironton High School Senior Showcase that gave him a love for the theater. He got leads in school plays and acted on the stage of the Paramount Arts Center

After graduating in 1991, he headed to the University of Cincinnati and was in the College Conservatory of Music program. During summer breaks, he worked at Jenny Wiley Theatre in Prestonsburg, Kentucky as a performer and a writer.

Eventually, he discovered that he preferred the writing side of theater much more than the performing side.

“I could sit and write for 10–12 hours and it was the better than acting,” Fisher said.

After four years of college, he realized he would have to be there for at least another year to get all the classes he needed to graduate. After a discussion with his folks, he left college and headed to New York. There, he wrote what would become his first movie screenplay, 2004’s “The King of Iron Town,” which followed a 30-year-old man decides to enter The Iron Masters King of the Ring Contest, which is four fights in the course of a single night.

Fisher set the movie in Ironton, since the film could be shot in and around his hometown.

In 2006, he wrote and directed “Summer Nuts” about a Midwestern theater troupe who, in the spirit of plummeting ticket sales and community involvement, decide to join a softball league with a team named the Summer Nuts and it turns out they are pretty much the worst team in the history of softball.

The movie is based on personal experience. Fisher and other acting friends at school decided to form a team called “Hot Summer Nuts,” Fisher said. “And we were the worst team ever. We lost every single game.”

“Summer Nuts” had its premiere at the Midtown Cinema 3 in Ashland, Kentucky, the same place Fisher caught “Star Wars,” “E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial,” and “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

commitment to break into the movie world,” Fisher said, adding he didn’t want to be on his deathbed and look over his life and feel like he didn’t do enough because he hadn’t moved to LA, where the majority of the movies were being filmed at the time.

He and his family and his girlfriend packed up their vehicles and moved him out to Santa Anna, California where his girlfriend was going to attend grad school.

After that movie, Fisher continued to do short films and began talking with his girlfriend about moving to Los Angeles and seriously pursuing a Hollywood movie career.

He made the move in 2011 because he wasn’t meeting the type of people in New York that could get him to the next level.

“When I was working in New York, I wasn’t meeting a ton of people who were in the film world or had the connections or the

Fisher dedicated himself to learning how to write television scripts.

“I had the dream of making the big sale, selling a big television script or a big movie script, and reaching a wider audience,” he said.

He entered a writing contest called TrackingB TV Pilot Contest with a TV pilot script called “Extant,” about an astronaut spends 13 months alone in space and finds out she is pregnant.

The winner of the competition would get the script into the hands of managers, agents or producers to see if they wanted to make it into a TV show.

A couple months later, Fisher got a call that he hadn’t won, but although he had come in second place, the contest runners liked the script and wanted to shop it around. It ended up in the hands of a manager, who started sending it around town.

“It kind of went viral,” Fisher said. “That’s the dream, it was

being read all over town.”

To celebrate his 40th birthday, Fisher and his girlfriend went to Universal Studios to have a day of fun and ride the rides. While there, his phone starts blowing up with emails from a manager saying they would like to set up a meeting.

“And I thought it was great, I was finally going to have a manager,” Fisher said. “I’m getting off a ride and thinking that this is crazy, it actually has happened.”

While on the tram tour around the studio, Fisher was excited to see the offices of his childhood hero writer, producer and director Steven Spielberg, the man who made so many of his favorite childhood movies.

Then, just two weeks later, Fisher found himself sitting in the Amblin offices and meeting Spielberg who wanted to produce “Extant” as a TV show.

“It seems magical to even talk about it all these years later,” Fisher said, adding it was great to talk to the Spielberg. He said he found him inspiring and not jaded at all. He recalls being struck by the fact that after years in Hollywood, Spielberg was still happy to talk about all the details of story writing and making movies.

“He was genuinely kind and funny,” Fisher said. “I thought even if I have to move back to Ohio tomorrow, I could say I sat in that man’s office and I had conversations with him about Stanley Kubrick and George Lucas and making this movie and that movie. That would have been enough. At that point, I would have felt like I had won.”

A deal was struck and Amblin TV made a deal with CBS to make the show.

As for the casting, Halle Berry decided to take the lead role on the TV show.

“I certainly dreamed of working with someone like Halle Berry, but a very practical part of me just wanted to be a working writer. I wanted to be able to pay my bills and tell my stories,” he said with a laugh. “So for it all come together was shocking.”

The show aired its first season in 2014 and Fisher was credited as the series creator and wrote the script for six episodes over its two-year run.

“I had hoped it would have gone longer and there were ideas we had talked about

that I thought were interesting and enjoyed seeing them change during the process,” Fisher said. “We had a lot of ideas where it could go. But it was impossible to feel anything but enormous gratitude that it happened at all. I’m pretty lucky it happened at all. It’s a special thing.”

After “Extant” came to an end, Fisher continued his space voyage by becoming a writer on the NatGeo TV show, “Mars.”

“‘Mars’ was a really interesting concept. It was part documentary, part narrative fiction story about the first team of people who will live and work on Mars,” Fisher said.

He worked on the narrative side of the show to come up with people and stories to take a hard science look at how it could happen.

He said that the show was produced by Imagine Entertainment, which is owned by actor and producer Ron Howard.

“So the highlight for me was getting to spend the day talking to him about making ‘Apollo 13’ and brainstorming with him,” Fisher said. “It was the same out-of-body experience as the first time I talked to Mr. Spielberg. It was very cool.”

He ended up writing one episode and helped craft the narratives for other

episodes for two and half months for the first season.

He worked next on “The Strain” and wrote one episode of the modern retelling of vampires.

He didn’t get to meet the famed writer and director Guillermo Del Toro, although he did park next to his car when the show was being shot in Toronto, Canada.

“I think he was there and edited his movie ‘The Shape of Water.” I was on the lookout for him, but I never got to meet him,” Fisher said. He was helping prep episodes as the show was being shot. “That experience was a blast. I got to meet a lot of good friends.”

In between working on “Mars” and “The Strain,” Fisher had written a new TV pilot called “Reverie.”

The show was picked up by Amblin

Entertainment and, in January 2017, the pilot episode was shot.

“I got lucky and it was ordered to series by NBC as part of the next season. It was broadcast in the summer of 2018,” Fisher said. “I got very lucky again at getting a second original idea on the air was something I was really proud of.”

The show had a 10-show season.

Next Fisher was hired to work for a couple months about “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan” on Prime Video and said he probably gets more calls about that show than any of his other works, because so many people see his name in the credits.

“Which is funny, because it’s the one I had the least to do with,” he said, explaining that he was brought in to be one of the writers because they were short-handed. “They just needed an

other hand to work on material and be an extra voice in the room.

“I had an absolute blast. It was really a challenge to do something outside my comfort zone in a Clancy spy series. But I love that show. It was one of the ones that I watched the first season and was blown away but what they did.”

After years of doing science fiction shows, Fisher said he remains a fan, but he wants to head in a new direction.

“Now I’ve been doing sci fi for about 10 years, so I’m trying to branch out with some straight drama and crime fiction,” he said. “I’m trying to widen my world.”

But would he turn down Disney if they called him up to work

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• ASPIRE

• Behavioral Health Program

• Collins Career Technical Center

• Family Medical Center

• Healthcare for the Homeless Program

• Home Energy Assistance Program

• Homeless Assistance Programs

• Housing Assistance Program

• Ironton-Lawrence County Area Community Action Organization

• Individual assessment

• Career exploration

• Utility Assistance

• Academic and computer workshops

• Employability skill training

• Workforce database for employers

• Youth Services ( Ages 14-24)

• Ironton Metropolitan Housing Program

• Lawrence County Department of Job and Family Services

• ODJFS Veteran Services

• Ohio University Southern Campus

• Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities

• Southeastern Ohio Legal Services

• Vantage Aging

• Women, Infant and Children Program (WIC)

Honoring veterans

William C. Lambert Military Museum & Archive seeks to remember those who served

STORY & PHOTOS BY MARK SHAFFER

In the lobby of the Ironton City Center is a small museum dedicated to one of the city’s most famous war heroes, Col. Bill Lambert, called the William C. Lambert Military Museum & Archive.

In 1917, Lambert was among the Americans who joined the British Royal Air Force so he could fly in World War I. In 1918, he is credited with downing 18 or 22 enemy planes, depending on the source.

A L L WALKS OF LI F E Profile 2024

Lambert would receive a Distinguished Flying Cross awarded to Royal Air Force pilots who showed acts of valor while engaging the enemy. He is believed to be the second-ranked Ace pilot of the war, only eight victories behind fellow Ohioan pilot Eddie Rickenbacker.

He continued to fly and served in World War II. He retired as a lieutenant colonel.

After his retirement, he returned to Ironton and became an author and designed things that he later patented, mostly famously, at least locally, a device that sat on his chin so he could smoke his pipe hands free.

Besides being an actual war hero, he was a hero to many kids that loved to hear his tales.

One of those kids was Brent Pyles, one of the founders and current president of the Lambert museum.

“When I was a kid in the 1950s and early 1960s, Col. Lambert was an elderly fellow. We had always heard about him. He lived just a few blocks away from me,”

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Pyles said. Kids would ride their bikes over to Lambert’s house at 10th and Vine streets. He said that while many people Lambert’s age would shoo the kids away, Lambert didn’t.

“He was always willing to tell you a story or answer your questions,” he said. “We really liked kids and kids liked him. He recognized him as a military guy and someone that flew airplanes. It was fascinating. He was a living history book for us when we were kids.”

Part of the fascination was that Lambert was always smoking his pipe and “some way or another, he always had a hole burned into his sweater. And he invented the Dry-EZ, which was a pipe rest that the pipe could set on your chin, so it didn’t damage your teeth or make your jaw sore.”

Now, the Lambert Museum has an original display card of the Dry-EZ, which promised “No saliva in the bowl” that also acted as a rest for the pipe when it wasn’t being smoked.

The museum was organized as a 501 3 (c) non-profit in December 2018, with a goal of not only honoring Lambert, but many of the Lawrence Countians who have served in the military. Pyles said it was the brainchild of a few

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Ironton residents, including Bill Dickens and Joe Unger. He said he was brought in to give it a business structure.

“We set a goal of being an organization in Lawrence County, and Ironton in particular, to recognize the exploits of our veterans and our service men and women and to be an archive for military memorabilia to tell the story to future generations about what some of these people went through to where we are today,” Pyles said.

He said many people are finding trunks in basements and attics that contain not junk, but things that their parents or grandparents kept from the war. That has included captured enemy flags and more.

“It meant something to them, that’s why they kept it,” Pyles said.

He said the goal is to display history in an appropriate way and that Lambert was the entry point for the museum to get started.

“He doesn’t really have any direct descendants left, it was kind of the end of the line for Lambert. We didn’t have any family to talk to, so we talked to his friends and associates,” Pyles said.

One of those friends was Bill Martin, who helped start the Highlands Museum and helped the Lambert museum get organized.

“Bill had a lot of things that he and the colonel had done and talked about. He had the colonel’s patent for a mono wing aircraft. It is a really nice patent sample that the colonel had put together for the federal government when he applied for the patent,” Pyles said.

They also aligned themselves with Sam Wilson, a professor at Rio Grande University and Lambert’s friend.

“He wrote several books about the colonel, so he knew a lot of the stories the colonel used to tell and he knew the stories to be true because he had researched it,” Pyles said. “He said the colonel liked to embellish his stories, like we all do, but the central core of the story was truthful.”

Wilson also had a lot of things Lambert had made or traded for during the war and donated or loaned them to the museum.

They eventually hope to find a physical space in Ironton to display some of Lambert’s and other military veterans’ memorabilia.

“That will cost a lot of money for its upkeep and we are fledgling, volunteer organization, we don’t have a lot of money,” Pyles said. “We don’t have a direct source of income besides donations.”

He said Ironton Mayor Sam Cramblit II has been gracious to use part of the City Center lobby.

“He wanted to see a very tasteful, inviting display and that’s what we have done,” Pyles said. “He is very proud of it. We have been very fortunate to find a home in the City Center.”

Pyles said he is proud of what they have been able to do with the William C. Lambert Military Museum and Archive.

“It is very tastefully done,” he said. “We are all about our veterans and recognizing those from Lawrence County and our area that have served the nation.” 

Lambert’s Legacy

World War I ace remembered for tales, inventions

STORY BY MARK SHAFFER | PHOTOS SUBMITTED

In Ironton, one of the people who remains a legend is World War I ace Col. William C. Lambert. He was born in Ironton on Aug. 18, 1894. He is possibly the first Ironton resident to fly in an airplane. But he is famous for in aviation circle for shooting down 22 enemy airplanes in World War I. After the war, he became a barnstormer, author, painter and inventor.

According to Ashland, Ky. historian and friend of Lambert, Bill Martin, the future pilot got his interest in flying from watching the turkeys on his family farm. His interest in flying was furthered by a pilot who was visiting Ironton in 1910 or so in his Wright biplane. When the pilot was ready to leave, the engine wouldn’t start and Lambert hung out with the pilot as he made repairs, bringing him food and tools. The grateful pilot took Lambert up on a test flight and even let the young Lambert fly a little bit, an event that

probably made Lambert the first Irontonian to pilot an aircraft.

In 1914, Lambert left his job as a chemist in Buffalo, New York and went to Canada to join their army. In 1917, he enlisted in the British Royal Flying Corps and set sail for England.

Lambert would receive a Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded to Royal Air Force pilots who showed acts of valor while engaging the enemy. He is believed to be the second-ranked Ace pilot of the war, only eight victories behind fellow Ohioan pilot Eddie Rickenbacker.

After the war was over, Lambert returned to Ironton to work as an engineer. He also became a barnstormer, putting on shows with his aircraft around the Midwest. A barnstorming pilot would fly as low as possible over a town to get people’s attention and then land at a nearby field. Then the pilot would offer to take people up in the plane for a few dollars.

He also flew a U.S. Mail route, started an airplane manufacturing company and remained in the U.S. Army Air Corp.

When the second world war started, Lambert served as an engineer and retired in 1954 with the

rank of lieutenant colonel.

He was famous locally for both continuingly smoking his pipe and the holes in left in his shirts.

Don Lee, a local aviator and long-time aviation columnist for the Ironton Tribune knew Lambert well and wrote many a column about him which helped cement his legend.

“Col. Bill smoked a pipe and he used a prop that attached to the pipe to sit it on his chin. He had a U.S. patent on this gadget. He said without it, it was difficult to hold the pipe in his mouth since he had false teeth,” Lee wrote. “I think sometimes he blew rather than sucked on his pipe. His shirts had little burn spots on them. Since we took him to the Air Force meetings several times, my wife, Maybelle, kept an eye on him. She was afraid that that he would set himself on fire.”

Lambert published two books, “Combat Report,” a book that covered his experiences as a war pilot and “Barnstorming and Girls,” about his time as a barnstormer.

Lambert gifted copies of his books to Lee.

“When he gave me the second book, (Barnstorming and Girls) he took me aside and said, ‘Don’t let your wife read this,’” Lee wrote.

Lee also wrote of setting up a meeting between Lambert and Chuck Yeager, who famously became an ace by shooting down five aircrafts in a single day and for being the first test pilot to break the sound barrier on Oct. 14, 1947.

Lee had found out that Yeager was going to be in Huntington for a Boy Scout event and wrote to the pilot to ask if he would speak at the inaugural meeting of the Chuck Yeager Chapter of the Air Force Association.

Yeager agreed and Lee and Lambert went to attend the meeting. Lambert asked if he could bring along some 35mm slides of his

paintings to show and Yeager agreed.

“I introduced Lambert and he took off telling about his combat experiences and showing the slides. That was back in the days when there was a Kodak Carousel and a pro jector. Col. Bill rambled on and had the rapt attention of everyone, including Gen. Yeager.

It was very interesting, I was becoming a bit embarrassed since Chuck was supposed to be the featured speaker, I finally asked Col. Bill to wrap it up and give Yeager a chance to speak.

I introduced Yeager and he said, “Don, you expect me to interest your members by telling them about the Air Force mission in Pakistan after that.”

One time, Lambert showed Lee a piece of fabric that came from a famous German’s plane.

“He told me that it was a piece of fabric

from (Captain Manfred) Richthofen’s plane

him. It was generally agreed that a shot for the ground. It hit him in the left armpit and Although Richthofen was badly wounded, he managed to crash land in Allied territory, Lambert’s fabric piece came from. He had a record 80 enemy aircraft shot down, which age of 87, he was entombed in Woodland himself. He was buried in his World War I

Talking to the future

South Point Elementary students were asked their thoughts on school and life

SAWYER DILLON – SECOND GRADE

Q: What would you like to do when you grow up or be doing 20 years from now?

A: I would like to be a teacher.

Q: What is your favorite thing about thing about school?

A: Recess

Q: If you were in charge and could change one thing about school, what would it be?

A: That you never yell, that you can whisper.

PRESLEY EACHES – THIRD GRADE

Q: What would you like to do when you grow up or be doing 20 years from now?

A: I would like to be a teacher. I think I would teach second grade.

Q: What is your favorite thing about thing about school?

A: How now nice the teachers are and how I learn.

Q: Who is the person you look up to most?

A: My dad.

Q: If you were in charge and could change one thing about school, what would it be?

A: I think I would pick the time we get out — I feel like instead of 3:35, it would be 2:40.

JAXTON LITTLEHAS – THIRD GRADE

Q: What would you like to do when you grow up or be doing 20 years from now?

A: A doctor.

Q: What is your favorite thing about thing about school?

A: Recess.

Q: Who is the person you look up to most?

A: My parents.

HUDSON FRANZ – SECOND GRADE

Q: What would you like to do when you grow up or be doing 20 years from now?

A: Probably a football player

Q: What is your favorite thing about school?

A: Gym

Q: If you were in charge and could change one thing about school, what would it be?

A: I’d have gym every day

MALIHA LONG – SECOND GRADE

Q: What would you like to do when you grow up or be doing 20 years from now?

A: A doctor

Q: What is your favorite thing about thing about school?

A: Math. I think it’s very fun.

Q: Who is the person you look up to most?

A: My mom.

Q: If you were in charge and could change one thing about school, what would it be?

A: I think school should be a little bit more fun and happy. Stuff like that.

Stories with a message

Ironton children’s author is now up to her eighth book

Just outside of Ironton, a small cottage is a standout on Township Road 277, with its colorful décor reflecting the work of its creator and it serving as a site for happy memories for the children hosted there.

Vicki Roach created Tea Party Treats & Sweets in 2011, a venue for story hours, birthday parties and events for girls (with an adjacent Cowboy Cabin for boys)

“I’ve always loved tea parties and, growing up, we always had a cave on the back of our hill,” she said. “My mom used to give me couple of her chipped plates and cups and I’d take them back

there and have tea parties. When I had daughters, I continued doing thing for her birthdays.”

Roach, who was working in a doctor’s office at the time, said she conceived of the cottage as a perfect spot for children’s parties and contacted Amish workers in the region, who constructed it.

She said, once it was built, she decorated it, and hired high school and college students to appear as Disney princesses and characters. The princesses are also a popular draw when they walk in costume at the Ironton-Lawrence County Memorial Day Parade, where children flock to them for photos.

“It took off really quick and got bigger than me,” she said. “It actually took care of me for 10 years. You can’t beat that. It paid our bills and took care of us.”

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, Roach said she had to stop hosting parties, but she kept the cottage going for weekly story hours in the spring, summer and fall, for which children can be signed up on Facebook.

“In order to come, all you have to do is bring a donation of whatever were taking up – a can of food, hygiene items for local shelters, panties for little girls, just different things needed in our community,” she said.

And it is those story hours, as well as the regular videos from the cottage, where Roach shares her work as a published writer with several titles.

Describing herself as “a wife, mother, grandmother, Christian, children’s Christian author and small business owner,” Roach, a member of Sharon Baptist Church in Ironton, is releasing her eighth book this year.

The stories are inspired by members of her own family, with elements of fantasy mixed in, and all share a positive message.

Her first book, “Fairies Love Oreos,” done with illustrator Ricardo Ramirez Gallo, was released in 2019 from Hitchcock publishing.

Roach recalls the story behind the tale.

She was at the grocery store with her daughter, Breana, with a limited amount of money on hand to buy dinner for the family.

“I had all the kids with me,” she recalled, noting that her daughter had decided to, without her knowing, sneak and open a package of Oreos and began eating them.

Roach said she remembers finding Breana with the cookies all over her face and she began to cry from the predicament.

That’s when a cashier stepped in and offered to, not just pay for the cookies, but also the family’s groceries.

“There are angels all around us,” Roach said. “She was my angel that day.”

She quotes the final line of the book, which sums up its message: “The lady at register didn’t know that day, but she showed God’s love in perfect way.”

Gallo has worked with Roach on all of her books.

“I met him here,” she said, stating he had arranged a dinner for his wife at her property. “He wanted something special for her. I told him I was looking for an illustrator He’s amazing. He can do anything. All the characters – they’re cartoon characters, but they look like my children and grandchildren.”

Roach’s second book was “Bridget the Queen Bumblebee.”

She said it was about when Bridget, 6, made necklaces and gave them to children at school. The girl even gave the gifts to two girls who Roach said had not been kind to her.

“I asked, ‘Why did you give them one, as mean as they are?’”

She said the girl told her, “Remember what they said in church about being good to everyone, especially people mean to us?”

“Sometimes God teaches us things through our children,” Roach said of the lesson.

Another book, Charles the Anxious Panda,” is based on her grandson Braxton.

“When he was little, he was anxious about everything,” Roach said. “And the book explains that God tells you what to do.”

Her sons, Bruce and Brice, figure into another title, “Gingerbread Smash,” based on the time they destroyed one of the large gingerbread houses Roach had made and was selling during the holidays.

While “Harleigh the Ballerina” is based on another granddaughter and her love of both dressing up and playing in the mud.

“It’s about being the way you are you,” Roach said. “You are special and God loves you just way you are.”

Roach said she wrote another title, “I am not a Worm. I am Easton a Child of the King,” about her grandson, Easton, and the grief he was going through after the death of his grandmother.

“She was a good friend of ours, too,” Roach said. “I wanted to write a Christian book to teach about death. He loved his Nana so much.”

Sometimes God teaches us things through our children.

The passing of Roach’s mother was the motivation behind “Mama Fox,” which she said she wrote while her mother was in hospice and the hospital.

“She was diagnosed with breast cancer,” Roach said. “During her stay, I wrote that book about her. It’s about how she raised us in church. I had seven brothers and sisters. We never knew we were poor. They always provided for us.”

Roach, at the time of the interview, was awaiting the arrival of her latest book, “Harper the Mermaid,” which was in final editing and to be released in February.

“She spreads God’s love all over the land and sea,” she says of the tile, based on a granddaughter. “It teaches everyone that God loves you, regardless of sex, color, gender or anything.”

Roach said attendance has been strong at her story hours and she often has to book a second session each week to get all of the children in.

“I pick out a book and read it,” she said. “A princess comes and she serves cupcakes and we have tea, story time and play games.”

She said she hopes to start similar events for boys up this year in the Cowboy Cabin.

Roach said “everything fell into place,” as she went about becoming an author, from the chance meeting with her illustrator, to her husband meeting and introducing her to her Columbus-based publisher.

“I had thought about it since I was

little, and had stories jotted down,” she said. “It really took off like wildfire. It was no longer my plan, but God’s plan.”

While the stories contain fantastical elements, such as fairies and mermaids, Roach said the core of each tale comes from real life, something she explains to children.

“When I read to kids, I ask them, ‘What do you think is true and not true?’” she said. “I tell them it’s a true story, based off my daughter. And they understand that.”

As for future titles, she has a few more planned at the moment.

One will be based on her grandson, Gus, who is 4.

“His is going to be ‘Gus the Great Superhero,’” she said.

Following that will be one based on her three-year-old granddaughter, Everly, who will be a princess at a tea party.

And she has one grandchild left, Elijah, though at only one year old, his story has yet to come to her.

“I’m not sure about him yet,” she said, but is confident he will similarly inspire her.

With a large extended family, Roach knows she has no shortage of fuel for future works.

“I’m definitely going to keep writing, until I run out wind to do it anymore,” she said.

Roach’s books can be found at www.vickiroach.com and online through Walmart, Barnes and Noble and Amazon. Sign ups for the story hours can be done on Facebook. 

A passion for serving

Cogan dedicated to business and serving community

STORY & PHOTOS BY HEATH HARRISON

SOUTH POINT — For nearly three decades, Mary Cogan has been serving customers at South Point Storage. Located on Solida Road in the village, the business is easy to spot, with its giant fiberglass elephant on the lot greeting customers. Cogan had it installed last year, after having it shipped by flatbed truck from Kentucky.

Cogan said she started the business in June 1996, in a building purchased from Stephens and Sons Insurance, after she and her husband, Carlton, were living in a mobile home and needed to rent a storage unit.

During this process, they saw that a need existed and that there were opportunities in the filed.

“We read that people with a small home should get a storage unit for their things, since it makes your home look neater and bigger,” she said. “We saw that this was a thing to get into and that there was a need so people could organize their homes and garages.”

Cogan says that people also want to hang on to things that have value to them, that they may not have room for.

“People love to keep their old stuff — they might keep their old tuba from high school in a storage unit,” she said, as an example. “They’re not going to play it again, but it brings back such good memories.”

Cogan said they have 350 storage units in total, and estimates they have more than 100 customers who have been renting them for more a decade.

The units are at their main office, as well as four other locations.

In addition to the storage units, the office also offers check-free pay on utility bills.

“We’ve done that 12-15 years,” Cogan said. “We take all the different bills and it’s a community service.”

In a similar vein, they also offer dog tags, as one of the sites

throughout the county working with the Lawrence County Animal Shelter.

“We started that about five years ago,” she said.

Prior to launching her storage operation, Cogan began offering U-Haul rentals for the area.

“We off the most popular equipment — trucks, enclosed trailers, open trailers and tow dollies and auto transports,” she said. “But there are certain pieces of equipment only available at centers, such as in Huntington.”

Outside of the storage location, a large part of Cogan’s business ventures come in the form of rental properties.

While they manage three commercial buildings, the vast majority are residential and, altogther, they have 150 apartments, in Chesapeake, Coal Grove, South Point and Ironton.

“A lot of people been there long time,” she said of tenants. “But they move when they need to move, whether it’s for a job or family situation. That’s the part I love best — the apartments and houses.

Cogan said she got into property rentals about 35 years ago. She says they are growing, always acquiring more property and remodeling existing units.

“We are the most law abiding landlord in the county,” she says with pride. “We want to fix everything broken with homes. I want to make people’s lives easier. And we just really rock at what we do. We’ve got this thing down pat. You want to be legal and you want to be moral.”

Including herself, her business has a staff of eight,

including a part-time CPA accountant, three full-time office employees, a full-time maintenance man and a part-time maintenance man.

“And we have a part-time grass cutter, Mark Gooddall,” she said. “He is terrific.”

A L L WALKS OF LI F E Profile 2024

Cogan also credits her attorney, Randy Lambert, for helping her to navigate anything unexpected that may come up.

Cogan and her husband, Carlton, have a daughter, Maddie Brown, who co-owns the Shakery in Ironton, and a son, Jake, who lives in Ironton in the city’s historic Tower House.

Cogan lived in Proctorville and went to school there, also attending Collins Career Technical Center. The family moved to South Point when she was in 11th grade, but she continued school in Proctorville.

“I drove my dad’s car there,” she recalls.

Her first job was at Hamilton Chevrolet, where she said the owners helped shape her future.

“They taught me how to run a business,” she said. “I credit them with learning how to understand finances and inventory.”

Outside of business, Cogan is involved in the Lions Club, helping to establish a club in South Point in recent years, and she serves as a treasurer for Pack 115 of the Boy Scouts, located in South Point.

She is also active in politics, having served for 11 years on South Point’s village council and is in her third term. She is also vice chair of the executive committee of the Lawrence County Republican Party and serves on the party’s central committee.

As far as her business work, Cogan talks about what motivates her.

“I just love what I do,” she said. “I have a passion for serving people. I have a passion for making things be better. Every day brings something new. I have a really good team that I trust and that creates enthusiasm and passion.” 

The eve of a centennial

Lawrence County Historical Society, in operation for 99 years, prepares for upcoming season

STORY BY NICOLE COX

While many are looking forward to spring, which is just around the corner, the Lawrence County Historical Society is preparing for its 99th year of operation.

Officially founded in March of 1925, the Museum and Historical Society has prevailed in its mission to preserve and share our county’s fascinating history.

The museum season will officially kick off the year at 1 p.m. on Sunday, April 7 with a display of the Ironton Tanks, the town’s only semi-professional football team. There will be an assortment of memorabilia on display, as well as commemorative mini helmets and decals for sale.

Mark your calendars in

May for the annual Spring Tea and Fashion Show. This event is an annual FUN fundraiser that always draws a sell-out crowd. In addition to the delicious menu, guests will be treated to a fashion show that centers around a different theme each year. Last year, we displayed women’s sports attire through the ages.

Several events will be held throughout the summer, with plans for those still underway. Visitors can expect our annual Pie Social and contest, just after the Conestoga Wagon is lined up in the Memorial Day Parade.

As the weather turns slightly little cooler, the Woodland Cemetery Historic Walk will kick off at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 7. This event always draws the largest crowd, with many out-oftown guests trekking to Ironton to see the portrayals of Lawrence County’s most remarkable residents.

Next on the agenda is our recently revived Harvest Festival and Bean Dinner. We hope to showcase antique farm equipment from

PHOTO BY JESSICA ST. JAMES

PHOTO BY LARRY REES

PHOTO BY TIM GEARHART

PHOTO BY HEATH HARRISON

A L L WALKS OF LI F E Profile 2024

the area, while guests enjoy beans cooked over the fire, along with other homemade goodies.

As the museum is transformed into a scene straight out of the North Pole, we will host our annual Holiday Tea. Participants are treated to a scrumptious menu and hot spiced tea. Tickets for this event also sell out fast every year.

Wrapping up the season is another favorite – the Downtown Ironton Historic Church Walk. This event will be Saturday, Dec. 7, beginning at First Baptist Church in Ironton. As of now, the event will begin at 5 p.m. but that could change as the date draws closer. Participants are led on a candlelit walk throughout downtown Ironton to tour several of the oldest churches and hear of their interesting histories, before ending at the museum for cookies and hot cocoa.

The Historical Society has enjoyed a long history, filled with incredible discoveries documented by dedicated historians whose only motivation is to share this area’s rich history with others. We could not keep going without the committed volunteers and contributions from the people of Lawrence County. We are so grateful for your support and invite you to tour the museum, attend a meeting or events and join our mission.

Members of the Historical Society will get a newsletter soon, outlining our events for the year, updates on current projects, as well as interesting tidbits of Lawrence County lore. You can also check our Facebook page for up-to-date information on upcoming events, trivia, special photos and more. 

Wheels were powder coated, then paint matched to the truck.

Back home and looking good

Last year’s Ironton-Lawrence County Memorial Day Parade saw the public debut of a project the South Point had put much effort and time into — the restoration of the village’s first fire truck, a 1928 Model AA Ford.

Mayor Jeff Gaskin said the truck was used by the village until 1959, when it was sold to David Brubaker, who had planned on restoring it.

Following Brubaker’s death, it sat in a barn in Tipp City, until Brubaker’s family donated it back to the village, on the condition that it be restored.

Gaskin said workers and volunteers spent a year working on the vehicle, which is to be used as a show truck and that most every nut and bolt on the vehicle had been replaced with stainless steel.

Prior to the parade, Brubaker’s widow, Jean Mattis, and family were guests of the village at its unveiling.

A recycled wooden hose bed, from the village’s second fire truck, a 1960 model, was used for the vehicle.

ABOVE: The back of the truck contains the inscription “For David,” in honor of the truck’s previous owner, David Brubaker. LEFT: The truck, as it appeared before restoration.

(Submitted photo)

STORY & PHOTOS BY HEATH HARRISON

Wooden ladders were salvaged from the village’s annual clean up days and repurposed for the truck.

Gaskin says they are still looking for kerosene lanterns to hang on the back brackets of the vehicle.

A polished, 200-gallon copper tank. The original brass soda water for the vehicle.

All lettering on the vehicle is exactly as the original.