November 2023 | Kentucky Monthly Magazine

NOVEMBER 2023

with Kentucky Explorer

KY

WOMEN IN THE MILITARY THE HONORABLE ORDER OF KENTUCKY COLONELS FOUR-STAR GEN. CHANCE SALTZMAN HEADS THE SPACE FORCE

and more...

West Sixth Brews With a Purpose

The Galt House Gives Back Equine Artist Karen Kasper

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O N T H E C OV E R Display from Our Stories, Our Service: Kentucky’s Women Veterans PHOTO BY REBECCA REDDING

in this issue

32

N OV E M B E R D E PA R T M E N T S 2 Kentucky Kwiz

16 Call Them Veterans A Kentucky Historical Society exhibit gives military women their due

10

3 Readers Write 4 Mag on the Move 6 Music 10 Cooking 14 25th Anniversary Celebration 47 Kentucky Explorer 58 Past Tense/ Present Tense 60 Field Notes 62 Calendar 64 Vested Interest

26 Space Chief Four-star Gen. Chance Saltzman, a Kentucky native, heads the newest branch of the United States military 28 Contributing Colonels Kentucky’s century-old, worldrenowned social order gives millions of dollars to nonprofits 32 Cheers to West Sixth The Lexingtonbased brewery supports a wide variety of nonprofits across the Bluegrass State

36 Legacy of Giving Louisville’s Galt House Hotel continues its founder’s tradition of contributing to the community 40 Passion Project Karen Kasper’s love of horses—particularly Arabians—has fueled her successful sculpting career

k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 1

kentucky kwiz Test your knowledge of our beloved Commonwealth. To find out how you fared, see the bottom of Vested Interest.

Celebrating the best of our Commonwealth

1. Which United States president, who served as a general in the Mexican American War, grew up in Louisville?

7. Who was Kentucky’s only “ace” pilot during World War I, downing seven enemy aircraft?

A. Abraham Lincoln

A. Edward “Eddie” V. Rickenbacker

B. Zachary Taylor

B. Edward “Eddie” Ward

C. Ulysses S. Grant

C. Jessie Orin Creech

2. What is/was the primary mission of the Blue Grass Army Depot in Richmond?

A. Training new recruits

8. Which native Kentuckian was the first Black person to successfully complete the U.S. Navy Diver Program?

B. Maintaining military vehicles

A. Carl M. Brashear

Ted Sloan Contributing Editor

C. Storing and disposing of chemical weapons and other munitions

B. William J. Crowe

Cait A. Smith Copy Editor

C. Richard Caswell Saufley

Lucy Saunderson Intern

3. What elite military unit is stationed at Fort Campbell?

B. 10th Mountain Division

9. During the World War II Battle of Iwo Jima in the Pacific, which Marine from Kentucky helped raise the American flag on Mount Suribachi?

C. 1st Calvary Division

A. Joseph Rosenthal

Jackie Hollenkamp Bentley, Jack Brammer, Bill Ellis, Steve Flairty, Gary Garth, Jessie Hendrix-Inman, Mick Jeffries, Kim Kobersmith, Brigitte Prather, Walt Reichert, Tracey Teo, Janine Washle and Gary P. West

B. Leonard F. Mason

Business and Circulation

A. 101st Airborne Division

4. Which notable military figure, who was born in Kentucky, served as a general in three different armies: the Texas Army, the U.S. Army and the Confederate Army?

C. Franklin Runyon Sousley

A. Robert E. Lee

A. Ruth Reynolds

B. Albert Sidney Johnston

B. Rose Will Monroe

C. Braxton Bragg

C. Linda Lou Mitzel

5. Which civilian occupation in Kentucky played a crucial role in supporting the war effort during World War II by providing a significant portion of the country’s strategic raw materials?”

A. Coal miners

11. What Kentuckian born into slavery became the first African American Colonel in the U.S. Army and subsequently the highest-ranking Black officer in the regular Army until his death in 1922?

B. Iron workers

A. Charles Young

C. Tobacco farmers

B. Frederick Douglass

10. Who was the Kentuckian who became the face of “Rosie the Riveter” during World War II?

C. Garrett Augustus Morgan

Stephen M. Vest Publisher + Editor-in-Chief

Editorial Patricia Ranft Associate Editor Rebecca Redding Creative Director Deborah Kohl Kremer Assistant Editor

Senior Kentributors

Barbara Kay Vest Business Manager

Advertising Lindsey Collins Senior Account Executive and Coordinator Kelley Burchell Account Executive Teresa Revlett Account Executive For advertising information, call 888.329.0053 or 502.227.0053 KENTUCKY MONTHLY (ISSN 1542-0507) is published 10 times per year (monthly with combined December/ January and June/July issues) for $25 per year by Vested Interest Publications, Inc., 100 Consumer Lane, Frankfort, KY 40601. Periodicals Postage Paid at Frankfort, KY and at additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to KENTUCKY MONTHLY, P.O. Box 559, Frankfort, KY 40602-0559.

Vested Interest Publications: Stephen M. Vest, president; Patricia Ranft, vice president; Barbara Kay Vest, secretary/treasurer. Board of directors: James W. Adams Jr., Dr. Gene Burch, Gregory N. Carnes, Barbara and Pete Chiericozzi, Kellee Dicks, Maj. Jack E. Dixon, Bruce and Peggy Dungan, Mary and Michael Embry, Judy M. Harris, Greg and Carrie Hawkins, Jan and John Higginbotham, Frank Martin, Bill Noel, Michelle

6. Which countries are linked to Kentucky under the National Guard’s “State Partnership Program?”

12. What general from Kentucky led a Confederate force into northeastern Ohio?

A. Sweden and Brazil

A. John C. Breckenridge

B. Ecuador and Djibouti

B. William F. Perry

C. Czech Republic and Japan

C. John Hunt Morgan

Jenson McDonnell, Walter B. Norris, Kasia Pater,

This month’s Kentucky Kwiz courtesy of Donald G. Hukle, Lt. Col., USAF (Ret) of Alexandria, Virginia.

2 KE NT U C K Y M O NT H LY NOV EMBER 2 0 2 3

© 2023, Vested Interest Publications Volume Twenty-Six, Issue 9, November 2023

Dr. Mary Jo Ratliff, Barry A. Royalty, Randy and Rebecca Sandell, Kendall Carr Shelton and Ted M. Sloan.

Kentucky Monthly invites queries but accepts no responsibility for unsolicited material; submissions will not be returned.

kentuckymonthly.com

Counties mentioned in this issue...

Readers Write Anniversary Congrats I always look forward to receiving Kentucky Monthly, but 25th-year issue was special. The recounting of the milestones and special editions was fascinating—I couldn’t put it down. And, as always, the Kentucky Explorer section was excellent. The short piece on Daddy Dan and coon hunting was of particular interest. As the owner of a bluetick coonhound, I have first-hand experience with coons in trees and the mayhem that ensues.

My congratulations and thanks for another excellent issue of Kentucky Monthly. Keep up the good work.

Bob Morris, Blue Ash, Ohio

you can buy gas and snacks. We have a Dollar General store that can provide you with some items you might need and many items you’ll probably never need. How can you not be tempted to jump on your four-wheeler and come on down?

As for my Kevin Bacon number, it is four. Kevin Bacon worked with Julia Roberts, who worked with George Clooney. I met George’s parents, Nick and Nina, at the Jeanne Penn Lane Celebration of Kentucky Writers at Penn’s Store in Gravel Switch (Casey County) several years ago.

Now, you have only to hear from Rabbit Hash!

Joberta Wells, Yosemite

• • •

• • •

Weighing in from Yosemite here, as Editor Vest requested (September issue, page 64)! Perhaps you will visit during your 25th anniversary.

Regarding the 25th anniversary issue of Kentucky Monthly, congratulations to you and your staff for realizing a dream and making it last.

We have few of the expected amenities, but

Ted Wathen, Louisville

Much Appreciated I scanned through a recent copy of Kentucky Monthly and found an article by Gary Garth on hunting opportunities in Kentucky (September issue, page 60).

I wanted to commend you and your team for allowing such an article in your magazine. As it points out, “hunting is strongly opposed by some.” And that is true. Unfortunately, it’s easier for media like yours to take the path of least resistance and not “offend” than to include content of this nature.

What is also true, as stated in the article, is that hunters care deeply about wildlife. We also care about wild places and the conservation of those wild places.

I am an avid hunter and know the regulations well but had no idea that there were three new wildlife management areas in the state. This article was informative for me, and again, I appreciate it.

Jacob Coons, Fisherville

We Love to Hear from You! Kentucky Monthly welcomes letters from all readers.

Email us your comments at editor@kentuckymonthly.com, send a letter through our website at kentuckymonthly.com, or message us on Facebook. Letters may be edited for clarification and brevity.

The Kentucky Gift Guide Kentucky Monthly’s annual gift guide highlights some of the finest handcrafted gifts and treats our Commonwealth has to offer.

Drink Local This handy guide to sipping in the Bluegrass State spotlights local breweries, wineries and, of course, distilleries. Discover unique ways to drink in Kentucky, creative cocktail recipes and more.

Follow us @kymonthly Find more at kentuckymonthly.com.

Use your phone to scan this QR code and visit our website.

UNITING KENTUCKIANS EVERYWHERE. k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 3

travel

MAG

Even when you’re far away, you can take the spirit of your Kentucky home with you. And when you do, we want to see it!

ON THE

MOVE

Colorado

Philippines

Dave Shuffett, left, former host of KET’s Kentucky Life series, was spotted in Estes Park, Colorado with his Kentucky Monthly magazine. His wife, Beverly, also was in on the fun. The couple lives in Green County.

Michigan Kentucky Colonel Majella Stevenson, who lives in Honolulu, Hawaii, traveled to the Cordillera Mountains in the northern part of Luzon Island, Philippines, to see the tiered rice terraces, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Tom (formerly of Mt. Sterling) and Cheryl Shrout visited the Cherry Republic in Glen Arbor, Michigan, on the shores of Lake Michigan.

4 KE NT U C K Y M O NT HLY NOV EMBER 2023

Gift the power of

J O Y

This holiday season, bring joy, care, and hope to Kosair Kids.

To make your holiday gift, visit kosair.org or scan the QR code.

music

by Laura Younkin

The Bonnie Prince of Kentucky

6 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY NOV EMBER 2023

out in 1993. Half of it was recorded in Meade County, and the other half was recorded in Jefferson County.

Oldham said there are pluses and minuses to building a music career in Kentucky. “It makes certain things easy. Weeding through BS is less of a day-to-day task,” he said. “It’s difficult in that there’s not a huge peer group.” But the folks he works with are great, and the local musicians are like family.

Oldham’s love of home and family are big factors in his staying in the Commonwealth.

He helped care for his mother during a 14-year illness. “Mom got sick, and I felt like it required my presence here,” he said.

Oldham believes Louisville has a strong music scene. He said narrating the documentary Music Makes a City, about the creation of the Louisville Orchestra, was educational.

“My generation has benefited from the cultural life that Louisville has,” he said. “The strength of the ballet, the theater and the orchestra, and the support they get” have helped build that strong music scene.

Oldham is a friend of many musicians in Kentucky. A conversation with Louisville Orchestra lead conductor Teddy Abrams was mentioned in passing. Many local musicians accompanied Oldham on his latest album, Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You, which came out in August.

Dave Howard, director of the Louisville Folk School; Sara Callaway, president of the Louisville Academy of Music; and Dane Waters, a music educator and vocalist, play on Oldham’s latest release.

When considering well-known Kentucky musicians, Oldham cites Loretta Lynn, Dwight Yoakam and Patty Loveless as influences. He believes there are many relatively unknown musicians who influence him daily.

“There’s 150 I can think of,” he said.

While at a memorial service for Steve Rigot, the vocalist of the fabled Louisville punk-rock band The Endtables, Oldham said he looked around and saw people of all ages and realized the musical community has become his family over the years. He said he has found professional and emotional support there.

While Oldham is touring to promote Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You, he’s on the board or advisory board for two music-related nonprofits. Of his life as an artist, he said, “It’s both terrifying and rewarding to wake up each morning and have no idea what I do for a living.”

Elsa Hans Oldham photo

W

ill Oldham is a Kentucky treasure who’s often more appreciated away from his home state. He has an international reach yet can easily walk around in his hometown of Louisville without being recognized.

Oldham is a singer-songwriter and actor whose career is so varied that it’s almost mindboggling. He was in the movie Matewan, a well-respected independent film that won an Academy Award for cinematography in 1987, when he was just 17. He took the photograph that became the cover of Slint’s 1991 Spiderland album, played Pastor Pigmeat in 2006 for the MTV children’s show parody Wonder Showzen, and had Johnny Cash cover his song “I See a Darkness.”

Oldham was the voice of Beargrass Creek in the documentary Beargrass: The Creek in Your Backyard, recorded a killer album of Everly Brothers covers with Dawn McCarthy, and managed to pull off these accomplishments while living in Kentucky. Oldham downplays the breadth of his talents. “I just stay open,” he said.

Oldham recorded for years under variations of the Palace (Palace Brothers, Palace Songs) with a variety of musicians and configurations of the band. In 1998, he began recording as Bonnie “Prince” Billy, which is his more recognizable performance name.

As a teenager at the J. Graham Brown School in Louisville, he was more focused on acting than singing.

His older brother got into punk rock in the late 1970s and early ’80s. The brother would “bring flyers, records and sometimes older musicians home,” Oldham said. “It piqued my curiosity.”

Oldham also had friends at the Brown School who were in bands, and he often hung out with them—as a photographer. “I was like 19 and left home and started to be around people who actively encouraged me to play chords and write songs,” he said. “I thought I was going to be a professional actor.” But an acting career did not feel like a good fit.

Oldham realized that his art training in theater—the hard work, the discipline and being creative— also could apply to the music world. First, he put out a 7-inch EP and “got a royalty check for around $300-400,” Oldham said.

That convinced him to continue with music.

When the label asked when the full-length album was coming, Oldham was ready to work. His first album came

k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 7

“

We want all students to know that at Cumberlands there is a clear and affordable path to a college degree.

That’s the Cumberlands Commitment.”

-President Larry L. Cockrum

THAT’S THE

CUMBERLANDS COMMITMENT First four graduates from The Williamsburg Institute.

I

n 1887, a few men representing 18 churches came together and committed to do something once and for all to help fix the “brain drain” in their struggling Appalachian area. By the end of the following year, they had successfully pooled their ideas and resources and founded a two-year college called the Williamsburg Institute.

The first four graduates became a doctor, an attorney, an educator, and a minister, spending the rest of their lives meeting the needs of people in their communities physically, legally, educationally, and spiritually.

Today, that small college is known as University of the Cumberlands – one of the largest private universities in Kentucky.

Since its beginning, Cumberlands has poured into students so students can pour into their families and communities.

The heart of the university rests on its original founding purpose: to provide a first-class education at rates within the means of the region’s young people. In other words, offering promising students of all backgrounds a well-rounded academic experience enriched with Christian values so they have what it takes to strive for excellence, lead with kindness, and give through service.

That’s what we do. That’s the Cumberlands Commitment. And, that is why we are embarking on the most ambitious project in the school’s history – a campaign to raise $200 million to support new student scholarships. The Cumberlands Commitment Scholarship Campaign seeks to ensure that the university’s on-campus undergraduate students are able to graduate from college with little to no debt.

Graduates from the Class of 2023.

The Cumberlands Commitment Scholarship Campaign seeks to raise $100 million from donors to increase scholarship opportunities. The university is matching every donation received, dollar for dollar, bringing the total amount of investment in new student scholarships to $200 million.

Your support will impact students for generations to come. Time to make your Commitment to Cumberlands.

UCUMBERLANDS.EDU/COMMITMENT

cooking

Don ’ t Scrap the Scraps!

Sunburst Salmon Lox This dish was created to use scraps of cooked beets after cutting them into uniform shapes for presentation. It has a stunning presentation; the beets stain the outside of the salmon, and then the salmon fades to its natural orange color. An homage to lox on an everything bagel, this recipe takes familiar flavors and elevates them to an elegant dish. ½ cup kosher salt ¾ cup granulated sugar 1 pound salmon filet, from the thick middle section, skin on and fresh 1 tablespoon vodka ¾ cup red beet scraps from cooked beets, grated or chopped in a food processor 1. Combine the salt and sugar in an airtight container and reserve until ready to use.

2. Prepare a pan with a rack over the top to allow liquid to drip from the salmon while it cures. Place a piece of cheesecloth large enough to wrap the salmon on top of the rack.

3. Place the salmon on the prepared cheesecloth/rack. Brush the salmon with vodka and top with about half the salt and sugar cure, making sure to cover the entire surface, including the sides.

4. Place enough beet scraps and any juices they may have on top of the cure across the entire surface of the salmon. Add any remaining cure over the top of the beets.

5. Wrap the cheesecloth around the cured salmon and place another pan with a 2-pound weight on top (I use 2 cans of sweetened condensed milk).

6. Place in the refrigerator for 3 days.

7. After 3 days, remove the salmon from the cheesecloth and rinse off the cure.

Blot dry with paper towels and return to a pan with a rack; refrigerate for 1 hour to air-dry slightly. At this point, you can serve it, or you can cold smoke it for a delicious smoked salmon.

8. Wrap in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator until ready to slice.

10 K E NT U C K Y M O NTHLY NOV EMBER 2023

By some estimates, food waste in the United States amounts to approximately 1 pound of food per person day. To counteract this waste and give home cooks creative tips on how to use food scraps, award-winning Louisville-based chef Christopher Stallard has published Waste Into Taste: Turning Scraps Into Delicious Dishes. Stallard presents an elevated way to incorporate leftovers and trimmings into elegant dishes.

Bacon-Fat Caramel This is a decadent caramel sauce featured in the composed dish chapter of the book. It is served with the Apple-Pecan Bread Pudding.

1¼ cup heavy cream ¾ teaspoon kosher salt ¼ cup bacon fat 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 cup granulated sugar ½ cup water

1. Combine cream, salt, bacon fat and vanilla in a saucepan and heat until warm.

2. In a separate saucepan, heat the granulated sugar and water over medium-high heat and cook until the mixture begins to caramelize. Gently swirl the pan to help the mixture to caramelize evenly.

3. When the caramel has reached a dark-amber color, carefully add the cream mixture. The caramelized sugar will hiss and steam aggressively.

4. Bring back to a boil, gently stirring with a spatula to make sure everything dissolves together.

5. Cool over an ice bath. Store refrigerated in an airtight container until ready to serve.

Recipes and images courtesy of Christopher Stallard.

Chef Christopher Stallard The owner and head chef of Michael Grant Gastronomy in Louisville, Christopher Stallard graduated summa cum laude from Johnson & Wales University in Charleston, South Carolina, with degrees in culinary arts and food service.

He has served as chef at numerous fine dining establishments across the Southeast, including The Orangery, Little Star Restaurant and Bistro by the Tracks in Knoxville, Tennessee, and Chai’s Lounge and Tristan in Charleston, South Carolina. He also was a culinary instructor at The Art Institute of Charleston and was recognized as faculty member of the year there in 2010.

LEARN MORE...

M G 2 C R E AT I O N S . C O M

k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 11

cooking

Peanut-Bacon

Financier Watermelon Gazpacho Whenever I work with watermelon, I have way more watermelon than I know what to do with. After making nice, diced pieces, or nice shapes cut with a ring mold, for plated dishes, I will use the scraps in different ways. This chilled watermelon soup is a wonderful summertime treat and takes traditional tomato gazpacho to a new level.

This recipe is used in the “Composed Dishes” chapter of the book to show how I would serve it in a restaurant.

This recipe is used in the composed dish chapter of the book for the Elvis Dessert. It is a great way to use leftover bacon fat. ¾ cup ground peanuts ¾ cup all-purpose flour 1 cup 10X confectioners’ sugar ¼ teaspoon salt ¾ teaspoon baking powder ¼ cup + 1 tablespoon bacon fat

½ cup fennel purée (see note)

1 teaspoon fennel seed, ground

¼ cup olive brine

1 teaspoon coriander seed, ground

1 tablespoon sugar

Pinch xanthan gum (optional)

1 tablespoon tomato paste 1 tablespoon shallot, minced ¼ cup orange juice 1 cup tomato, chopped 1 tablespoon cilantro, chopped 1 tablespoon jalapeño, finely diced 2 teaspoons salt 2 dashes Tabasco ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil 2¾ cups watermelon scraps, chopped ¼ cup red bell pepper, chopped ¼ cup yellow bell pepper, chopped 1 tablespoon smoked paprika

12 K E NT U C K Y M O NTHLY NOV EMBER 2023

1. Combine all ingredients, except the xanthan gum, and let stand refrigerated for 24 hours.

2. Transfer the mixture to a blender and purée. Add the xanthan gum to the vortex and process until incorporated.

4 egg whites ¼ cup brown butter

1. Combine the ground peanuts, flour, confectioners’ sugar, salt and baking powder in a bowl and set aside.

2. In a small saucepan, melt the bacon fat and warm to about 140 degrees.

3. In a mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites until slightly frothy.

3. Strain through a sieve. Serve chilled.

4. Fold in the dry ingredients with the egg whites.

Note: The fennel purée is simply fennel scraps that have been boiled in water and puréed together. Alternately, you can pressure-cook stalks of fennel with water and purée them.

5. Whisk in the bacon fat gently to emulsify.

6. Pour onto a greased 1/8th sheet pan (9x5 inches) lined with parchment paper.

7. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes or until done. Cool completely before cutting.

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GROWING UP KENTUCKY MONTHLY

W

WKU Public Radio is a regional network of four radio stations, with studios and offices on the Western Kentucky University campus.

WKYU-FM 88.9, Bowling Green WDCL-FM 89.7, Somerset WKPB-FM 89.5, Henderson/Owensboro WKUE-FM 90.9, Elizabethtown plus live webstreaming at wkyufm.org

WKU PBS WKYU 24-1 broadcasts on Channel 24 to a population of over 250,000 citizens of Kentucky and is carried on over 20 cable systems throughout southcentral Kentucky.

Donate to WKU PBS to stream Channel 24 anytime, anywhere!

wkyufm.org/donate 14 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY NOV EMBER 2023

hen I was growing up, the offices of Kentucky Monthly were a second home for my sisters’ and me, and they still are in many ways to this day.

I can recall the dark, echoing back halls that led from the employee parking lot into the magazine’s first office building, located in historic downtown Frankfort on St. Clair Street. They led to the offices’ multipurpose room, which, from time to time, doubled as my baby sister’s daytime nap room. There was a mini fridge, where Katy and I once exploded a Coke can because we were curious little kids.

Through a doorway along the wall were three offices and a conference room, which eventually would be crowned with the signed issues of Kentuckians featured on the covers. A display rack of the issues from the previous 12 months was beside the front door with the iconic Kentucky Monthly logo that has graced every issue. There was a front window, where we displayed a Christmas tree with the letters to Santa, written in crayon, asking for the newest issue of Kentucky Monthly magazine, “the magazine all about Kentucky.”

Year after year, we went to the Kentucky State Fair, with our first booth set up next to the Billy Bob Teeth display. Passing out magazines with George Clooney’s face to all the soon-to-be subscribers is as vivid a memory for me as jumping fences or riding bikes in the neighborhood with my childhood friend, Ryan Martin.

The unboxing of the family’s Nintendo 64 was just as exciting as when the magazine offices received new computers, or when boxes of the latest issue fresh from the printer arrived and needed to be opened and set up in the front lobby.

My expertise behind the steering wheel comes from the countless miles spent in 2010 delivering the Kentucky Monthly-published World Equestrian Games guide to distillery gift shops and hotels when the Bluegrass State hosted the event.

Over the years, I’ve had the

pleasure of meeting many of the people whose faces were featured on the covers, such as jockey Pat Day before one of his triumphant races at Churchill Downs. I have traveled to almost every county and dined at several of the Commonwealth’s best restaurants, sampled bourbon at distilleries, and—my favorite—visited the Ale-8-One bottling factory in Winchester.

Although my dad likes to cite the degrees of Kevin Bacon, in my experience, it’s much harder for anyone to find someone who doesn’t know (or know someone who knows, etc.) Mr. Kentucky (Dad) himself.

A noteworthy encounter came from one of the many years Dad and I ventured to Bowling Green for the Southern Kentucky Book Fest. One year, the Goosebumps series author R.L. Stine was present, and, through a series of events, I was fortunate to share lunch with and “interview” him as to what inspired him to write some of my favorite stories, many of which I still have a sitting upon one of my daughters’ bookshelves.

It’s difficult to sum up the last 25 years spent with Kentucky Monthly’s employees, who are all as much a part of our family as the Dixons and the Vests. I want you all to know I truly appreciate and admire all of your collaborative efforts to bring these issues to print. Most importantly, I appreciate you, the readers, without whom none of this would have been possible. Thank you for being so supportive, and, of course, thanks for reading.

— Christopher M. Vest

c e l e b r at i n g 2 5

meet us in lou November 16 • 5–7 PM SAR Headquarters 809 West Main Street, Louisville Kentucky Monthly continues our 25th Anniversary festivities in Louisville. Join us for an openhouse event that will highlight some of Kentucky’s nonprofit organizations during giving season, along with food sampling, music and more.

e x p lo r e Lo u i svi l l e Batter Up! The Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory celebrates the extraordinary role the iconic baseball bats have played and continue to play in one of America’s favorite pastimes. From the forest to the field, you’ll follow the timber that’s turned into hard-hitting history. And who doesn’t love getting a free mini bat at the end of a tour?

Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory sluggermuseum.com

Where the world meets Kentucky …The Frazier History Museum brings visitors face to face with world-famous figures and events that have shaped the course of human history, plus ordinary folks whose stories you’ve may not have heard. The museum also offers bourbon experiences!

Drink bourbon. Located in downtown Louisville, the Bourbon District is a walkable urban experience for those looking for a taste of Kentucky. In the Bourbon District, you’re never more than 5 minutes away from the next attraction, so planning a group tour or birthday celebration just got a lot easier.

Frazier History Museum fraziermuseum.org

Louisville’s Bourbon District bourbonism.com

Stay overnight. Nestled in downtown Louisville along Museum Row, 21c Museum Hotel is a contemporary art museum, an awardwinning boutique hotel, and home to the acclaimed Proof on Main restaurant. Look for the Red Penguin and the Golden David.

21c Museum Hotel 21cmuseumhotels.com

We’re celebrating all year! Stay tuned for more 25th Anniversary news, including meetups and suggestions for activities in all our host cities. We will feature them in every issue of the magazine and online at www.kentuckymonthly.com.

k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 15

Call Them

Veterans A Kentucky Historical Society exhibit gives military women their due

BY KRISTY ROBINSON HORINE

S

ince before the American Revolution, in this country’s wars, women have cooked the food, bandaged the wounded, washed the clothes, and kept the records, yet they weren’t called soldiers. When the wars ended, they weren’t called veterans. They weren’t even allowed to officially enlist in military roles for 150 years.

In 1901, Congress established the official United States Army Nurse Corps.

In 1948, President Harry S Truman signed the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act allowing women 16 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY NOV EMBER 2023

to serve as full members of the U.S. Armed Forces, albeit in noncombat roles.

In 2015, nearly 250 years after the beginning of the Revolutionary War, women were allowed to serve in all branches and in all capacities, with the same rights and benefits afforded to their male counterparts.

Still, active-duty female military members and veterans generally have lacked recognition for their service.

Our Stories Our Service: Kentucky’s Women Veterans, an exhibit at the Kentucky Historical Society (KHS) in Frankfort, seeks to change that.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

They’re called blades. Just through the double doors of the Keeneland Room at the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History, you can see them. The blades stand almost 6 feet tall, have a front and a back, and resemble a partition of sorts. Instead of separating spaces, though, they are designed to bring people together— veteran to veteran, civilian to veteran.

Each side of the blade tells a veteran’s story, complete with a photograph, a brief biography, the U.S. Armed Forces branch in which the veteran served, the dates of

P H OTO S B Y R E B E C CA R E D D I N G

k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 17

service and the highest rank achieved.

They tell the stories of women such as Army 2nd Lt. Zelda Webb Anderson, who served in the Women’s Army Corps from 1941-1945.

According to the Notable Kentucky African Americans Database, Anderson refused an assignment as mess officer, a duty often relegated to people of color. As punishment, she was ordered stateside during World War II and given the task of “organizing a warehouse of Army regulation manuals.” She eventually was stationed at Fort Knox, where she made housing arrangements for “Negro entertainment” such as Duke Ellington, Lena Horne and Earl Hines.

Another blade tells the story of Army Lt. Mary Edith Engle, who served as a Women Airforce Service Pilot (WASP) during World War II. She flew planes from factories to bases stateside. Although she was an accomplished pilot, she couldn’t call herself a veteran until 1979, after she successfully lobbied Congress for 18 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY NOV EMBER 2023

women’s rights to veteran status and benefits.

Maj. Judy Mitro served in the Air Force from 1974-1991.

Cpl. Judith Herzog served in the Marines from 2007-2011.

Lt. Martha Davis served in the Navy from 1964-1969.

Col. Pamela Stevenson served in the Air Force from 1984-2011. In 2020, Stevenson was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives and sits on the House Committee for Veterans, Military Affairs, & Public Protection.

Veterans all.

When Our Stories Our Service: Kentucky’s Women Veterans opened on June 12, nearly 150 people came. Since then, more than 3,000 visitors have walked through the exhibit.

L E AV E Y O U R H I G H H E E L S AT H O M E

Before women were allowed to officially enlist in the U.S. Armed Forces, they served in organizations

such as the Red Cross, the Salvation Army and the Young Women’s Christian Association, primarily fulfilling medical and clerical duties.

During World War II, women were allowed to enter the Army with the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC), later shortened to the Women’s Army Corps (WAC); the Navy with the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services (WAVES); the WASPs; and the U.S. Coast Guard Women’s Reserve, named after the Coast Guard’s motto: Semper Paratus—Always Ready (SPARS).

Old recruitment posters line the exhibit walls. Dividers explain the reasons why women enlisted: educational benefits, adventure, family legacy, sense of purpose, career opportunities and duty to country.

Photographs and mannequins detail the evolution of women’s service uniforms—from stiff white caps, starched shirtwaists and floorlength skirts worn by nurses in the

Spanish-American War (1898), to tailored-for-women contemporary Battle Dress Uniforms (BDUs).

The exhibit moves from enlistment, to service, to testimonials about breaking barriers—racism, sexual trauma, stereotypes, harassment—to the women’s return to civilian life.

Some women serve for a season; some women serve for a lifetime career. Even after discharge, women continue to serve. They are real estate agents, middle school social studies teachers, logistics specialists, flight nurses with civilian air medical service crews, mothers and veteran activists.

MAKING THE INVISIBLE SEEN

In June 2022, Honor Flight Kentucky introduced its first allfemale veteran Honor Flight, dubbed Operation HERoes. Honor Flight contacted the KHS a year in advance of the flight to ask if the society would be one of the sponsors. The

d i d yo u k n o w ?

KHS hosted a reception at the History Center the night before the flight and helped defray some of the lodging costs for veterans who had traveled a considerable distance across Kentucky to participate.

“In our initial talks with others, we came to realize women veterans face this invisibility—both from the public and from themselves. Through this exhibit, we could elevate what it means to be a woman veteran, so we can help them see themselves as veterans,” explained KHS Executive Director Scott Alvey.

Alvey and Doug High, thenexecutive director of the Kentucky Historical Society Foundation, accompanied the women veterans from Kentucky to Washington. In planning the exhibit, they wanted to create a similar experience for Kentuckians that the women had on the flight. The KHS would tell the story from an historical perspective—through enlistment, service and discharge—using the women’s own voices.

A team of workers interviewed nearly 200 veterans, took deep dives into research, collected letters, searched databases, and enlisted the help of a veteran advisory group for accuracy.

“It was a transformation watching these women be recognized for their work, and on opening day, these veterans were coming up to us saying this is the first time that [they] didn’t have to fight to tell [their] story, that somebody else sought to help [them] tell it,” Alvey said.

Not all stories are easy to tell, or to hear, but stories like Linda Cunningham’s help blaze trails for the women who are yet to serve.

A Tacoma, Washington, native, Cunningham now calls Lexington home. She enlisted in February 1979, only six months after women were integrated into the regular Army.

“The greatest thing about my military service was learning just how strong and capable I really was,” Cunningham said. “I was often the first or only woman in my unit. I took

The Hello Girls.

Tiaras.

Durring WWI, over 200 women nicknamed The Hello Girls, served in the Army Signal Corps Female Telephone Operators Unit sending crucial information in both French and English between command posts and the frontline trenches.

Dress uniforms for women combined the look of men’s formal wear with feminine touches such as ruffled shirts, velvet collars, fancy cumberbunds and even TIARAS.

k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 19

Linda Cunningham’s photo, branch, rank and biography grace one of the blades of Our Stories Our Service: Kentucky’s Women Veterans. Cunningham’s honor quilt also is on display, and her photo serves as one of the advertisements for the exhibit.

pride in doing my job as well as if not better than the men I served with. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was a true trailblazer, and that is also the worst part of my military service.”

She thought she would fit in with the men in her unit if she just did her job and did it well. She said that, instead of acceptance, she faced prejudice and sexual harassment, and she was sexually assaulted by a member of her unit. Despite earning distinguished awards, completing 20 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY NOV EMBER 2023

ROTC and earning her commission in 1984, the barriers to her success proved insurmountable. She could remain active duty and forfeit her physical safety and mental stability, or she could resign.

In 1989, she submitted her resignation, but reintegration into civilian life was not easy. “The friends I left behind in high school simply couldn’t relate to me, or I to them,” Cunningham said. “I had seen and done too many things they

couldn’t relate to. At work, it wasn’t much different.”

For the first few years after her separation from the Army, Cunningham didn’t want to have anything to do with the military or with any claim to veteran status.

Now, she is in therapy for PTSD stemming from the harassment and assault she experienced during her service. She went on the Honor Flight in 2022 and served on the advisory committee for the exhibit.

b LEARN MORE Ready to visit? Our Stories Our Service: Kentucky’s Women Veterans is on exhibit until Fall 2024 at the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History in Frankfort.

“All I may have done was show up each day and do my job, but by doing it first and shining a light on what needed to change to treat women fairly, I did make a difference. I did accomplish more than survival. I made history,” she said.

At the exhibit, Cunningham’s photo, branch, rank and biography grace one of the blades. Her honor quilt is also on display, and her photo serves as one of the advertisements for the exhibit.

But perhaps one of the richest honors is the one she gives to herself.

Cunningham is a veteran, worthy of honor, respect and a story shared for all of history.

“This exhibit is important because it acknowledges the contributions women have made to our armed services. It acknowledges the struggles we’ve made to serve and be accepted. It shows the world that women are veterans, too,” Cunningham said. “I can’t tell you

how many times I’ve been asked if the airborne wings on my car belong to my spouse or my father. They are mine. How many servers have told me the Veterans Day dinner is for veterans and not their spouses or been told I am wrongly parking in the veteran’s spot at Home Depot.

“This display shows that we have honorably served, and we are real veterans. It provides a role model for younger women—something I never had.” Q k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 21

WHEN YOU GO: Our Stories Our Service: Kentucky’s Women Veterans Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History 100 West Broadway, Frankfort 502.564.1792 • history.ky.gov Tuesday-Saturday, 10AM−5PM

Keeping History:

Our Stories Our Service will remain on exhibit until Fall 2024.

The Kentucky Historical Society “The Kentucky Historical Society is the keeper of the items—both every day and unique—that tell our story as Kentuckians.”

—Kentucky Historical Society This statement sums up the mission of the Kentucky Historical Society (KHS), a membershipsupported agency of the Kentucky Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet.

The brick-and-mortar buildings that make up the KHS include the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History, the Old Capitol, and the Kentucky Military History Museum, all located in Frankfort. But, Executive Director Scott Alvey said, the KHS is much more than a dusty museum.

“We are gathering primary-source materials to better understand what it means to be a Kentuckian,” Alvey said.

Primary sources include physical artifacts, documents and letters, images, journals, diaries, first-person oral histories, and digital resources from Kentucky and around the globe.

“Our truths and our authenticity lie within the fact of how close we can get to that original source,” Alvey said. “It still gives us room to debate and interpret. But to be able to have that primary source—that first-level object that was there to witness the history—and to be able

22 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY NOV EMBER 2023

to use that in our interpretation is what makes it so good.”

Alvey knows this first-hand. During his 30-year experience working in and around museums, he shipped Apollo 13 control panels to the Cosmosphere space museum in Hutchinson, Kansas.

He held a mummy. He met Apollo 10 commander Lt. Gen. Tom Stafford, one of a three-man crew who was the first to complete an entire lunar landing mission except for the landing part.

But Alvey isn’t the only one who can connect with history. Thanks to the KHS, everyone can.

Throughout its nearly 200-year existence, the KHS has served as a mecca of sorts for genealogists, educators and researchers. Mostly, it’s a place where all Kentuckians can witness and then understand their place in Kentucky’s story.

“Some people are very interested in digging into the research, but sometimes we have people who come because they just want their family to experience something they’ve experienced. Or they want to affirm something that they already believe, so they’re not really looking for new knowledge about it,” Alvey said.

“They just want to be in an area where they feel like this is where history is. We want to meet their expectations with good, authentic experiences because we don’t want to fill them full of myths or untruths.

People are interested in history, so that’s what we’re about.”

One example of the power of personal connection to history stands out. In 2017, The Newberry Library in Chicago featured an exhibit of Illinoisborn filmmaker and photographer Helen Balfour Morrison. Morrison traveled to Kentucky in the 1930s and ’40s, capturing images of Kentucky Freetowns—hamlets of freed slaves and their descendants. Morrison captured only images, not names and not places.

When KHS learned of the Chicago event, they requested the files and recreated the exhibit, which traveled across portions of Kentucky in 2018.

The goal was to reintroduce the primary-source images to their communities of origin and see what happened next.

“We saw this history getting pieced back together through these images. What might look like just a regular, everyday photo has all kinds of information in it about the time, the people, and the place, and what’s going on at that time,” Alvey said.

“We watched people pull their stories out of the images.”

For more information about the Kentucky Historical Society and its role in preserving and connecting Kentucky’s stories, past and present, visit history.ky.gov.

— Kristy Robinson Horine

k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 23

Life-Saving Camaraderie

F

or active-duty military and veterans, sounding “Retreat” signals the end of the duty day, but an organization in Shepherdsville knows that, for those who answer the call to serve, the work never really ends, and neither does the need for connection with a team that you know has your back.

Active Heroes is that organization.

Founded in 2011 as a 501(c)(3), Active Heroes’ mission is “to provide therapeutic programs and activities that promote camaraderie and help active-duty military, veterans, and their families flourish in life outside of uniform.”

Active Heroes completes its mission of connection, camaraderie and support on 150 acres at the end of Ridgeview Road in Bullitt County. It offers disc golf, an archery range, 5 kilometers of hiking trails, picnic and camping spots, and no-charge cabin rentals exclusively reserved for active-duty military and veterans. Throughout the year, the organization hosts informal rally points around campfires, family camping weekends, Jeep jamborees to support veterans, and monthly yoga classes. Organized activities such as the Aiming for Zero shooting event and equine-facilitated therapy are arranged through a third party.

All the activities are designed to raise awareness of and reduce the incidence of veteran suicide. The United States Department of Veterans Affairs reported in 2020 that veteran suicide rates in Kentucky are “significantly higher than the national veteran suicide rate.”

The Commonwealth lost 119 veterans to suicide in 2020. In general military terms, that number is the equivalent of an entire company or two platoons or roughly eight squads, depending on service branch.

In human terms, it’s 119 too many.

This is why Active Heroes Board Chair Cortney Burden believes wholeheartedly in completing the mission set before her.

RECREATING THE RALLY POINT RENDEZVOUS— ACTIVE HEROES STYLE Burden served six years in the Navy. She enlisted in July 1996 and was an Aviation Survival Equipmentman. She served at the Naval Air Station (NAS) Oceana Master Jet Base in Virginia, working on F-14s, and at NAS Sigonella in Italy, working in a helicopter squadron. After 9/11, Burden was in the Naval Reserves and went back for a short stint at La Maddalena off the coast of Italy. Burden separated from the Navy in 2002. She spent the next 20 years with a longing deep inside that she didn’t even know how to define.

In 2021, thanks to a Bullitt County Chamber of Commerce luncheon event where she was introduced to Active Heroes, Burden not only defined what she was missing, she found a meaningful way to fill it. She volunteered with a Jeep jamboree event and now volunteers as board chair.

“We did something so special in the military. We spent time in significant places, doing significant things. You know how amazing you are, and you know what you’re capable of,” she explained. “It sounds odd to say how much you missed the service or you missed your squadron or you missed your shipmates, because there are other folks that have been through a lot more.”

Burden did not serve directly in combat, but that doesn’t make her any less a veteran than those who served in the thick of battle. A

veteran is a veteran, and all veterans need to feel connected, especially when their official service ends.

That’s what Active Heroes is all about.

“Veterans want to be outdoors.

They want to work on projects together. They want to tell stories, and they want to listen to stories.

They want to sit around a campfire and drink a beer. It’s really not rocket science,” she said. “You can get into the extreme situation when someone truly does need an intervention, and there is a point where that is for the medical professionals.

“But I just believe in my heart that places like Active Heroes are essential and offer a haven for people to come if they are feeling isolated, if they’re having an off day, if they just need someone to talk to. Being able to take a hike, being able to sit around a campfire, being able to come volunteer and use a chainsaw to cut down a tree and then build a fire—those things are very meaningful. And they can be very therapeutic, and you may not understand it, but it’s true.”

Burden said the organization is working on more networking and connections specifically for women veterans. While the female veteran programming is in its infancy, the opportunity to create a base-like environment for women to begin sharing their stories and recreating camaraderie is there.

“We want to make female veterans feel welcome. So many feel like they don’t have a spot at the table. But if you are a veteran, if you are active duty, you are qualified to come out. You have a place; you can come share your stories.”

— Kristy Robinson Horine

For more information regarding Active Heroes, or to support the organization by attending the Stars and Stripes Gala on Friday, Nov. 4, visit activeheroes.org.

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Space Chief Four-star Gen. Chance Saltzman, a Kentucky native, heads the newest branch of the United States military B Y G A R Y P. W E S T

W

hen Chance Saltzman was a youngster playing tennis at Bowling Green High School in 1987, some thought he would have a better chance of winning a Grand Slam tennis tournament than becoming a fourstar general.

Stand up and salute, because the 54-year-old general received his fourth star in 2022, and along with it the title of chief of space operations for the United States Space Force. Established in December 2019, the Space Force is the newest branch of the U.S. military, joining the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard.

As technology and cyber capabilities have advanced, the Space Force blasted off to patrol outer space, meeting the demands of America’s national defense.

In Saltzman’s four-star ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base outside of Washington, D.C., in early November 2022, the nation’s top brass was on hand to pass the leadership baton 26 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY NOV EMBER 2023

from Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond to Saltzman.

Taking part in the ceremony were U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley, and Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. The ceremony recognized several astronauts, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk, and NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, who all attended.

Nearly 200 family members and friends from throughout Kentucky traveled to Washington to attend Saltzman’s ceremony.

From its beginning, Saltzman has been a part of the upper echelon of the new branch of service. Following a tour of duty in Southwest Asia with the Air Force in 2020, he returned to the Pentagon to act as director of staff of the Space Force.

A November 2022 release from the Space Force stated, “Despite its small size of 15,000 compared to the other military services, the Space Force’s

strategic importance is beyond dispute. Space is now considered a new and indisputable war-fighting domain, which is why the United States—primarily through the Space Force and its allies—is focusing heavily on space and adapting to the new conditions.”

• • •

For Saltzman, becoming a part of the Air Force ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps) program at Boston University was the means to an end. The program paid for his tuition, and, after he graduated, Saltzman was required to spend four years as an Air Force officer.

“When Chance was looking around for a college, there was no internet— no web to search schools,” recalled his mother, Belinda Saltzman. “We bought a big paperback book that rated the colleges’ academics but not Ivy League. Boston University was his choice.”

Boston pushed Saltzman’s comfort zone a bit. At the same time, he was in his element of something new, something different. Unknowingly, it was a sign of things to come.

Saltzman graduated from Boston University in 1991 with a bachelor’s degree in history, and, in May of the same year, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Air Force.

Not many attain the rank of general, much less one wearing four stars on their shoulder. Throughout all the military branches, there are only 43 four-star generals, and the Space Force has two.

The Saltzman family didn’t visit the school or the city beforehand.

Chance’s love of history was enough for him to know Boston was where he wanted to continue his education.

“He flew up there with a little duffel bag,” his mother continued.

“In fact, the first couple of nights in the dorm, he didn’t even have sheets.

We drove his clothes and things up to him after he had started school.”

Even as a youngster, the future four-star general showed confidence.

It wasn’t arrogance but a projection of his personality that made those around him feel at ease. He wasn’t a big talker, but when he did speak, those around him listened.

Joe Tinius, a retired superintendent of the Bowling Green Independent School District and Saltzman’s former tennis coach, said, “Chance was a top player, quiet leader—showed up on time and, of

course, was an outstanding student.”

John Noffsinger was a doubles tennis partner of Saltzman’s in high school. Noffsinger admitted that their pairing was somewhat of an oddcouple relationship, but they advanced to the state championship quarter finals two years in a row.

“Chance was cool, calm and collected, and I was a hothead,” Noffsinger recalled. “But we knew each other’s game. We started playing together in the eighth grade, getting up at 4:30 a.m. every morning for practice.”

Greg West was another high school teammate. “Chance always seemed to be the voice of reason in a sport that sometimes became emotional,” he said. “And that same demeanor seems to have stuck with him in the military.”

Leaving Bowling Green, where he was well known, for a big city like

• • •

Saltzman and his wife, Jennifer, also from Bowling Green, have traveled with their two children throughout the United States and to several foreign countries. But they never forget their Kentucky roots.

They have a home in the historic district of Bowling Green where they plan to return full time someday.

But in the meantime, Saltzman— known as “Salty” to his colleagues— has a big job to do. In addition to leading the Space Force, he has a seat on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, helping to ensure that his force is combat-ready.

“My goal will be to provide you the resources, tools, training and experiences you need to unlock your massive potential,” Saltzman said in his address to the Space Force when he was named chief of operations. Q k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 27

C o n t r i b u t i n g

Colonels Kentucky’s century-old, world-renowned social order gives millions of dollars to nonprofits

B Y JAC K B R A M M E R

K

entucky Gov. Andy Beshear bestows the title of Kentucky Colonel on about 6,000 people each year. His predecessor, Matt Bevin, issued the title to about 4,000 each year. The Kentucky Colonel is the highest honorary title the governor of Kentucky can issue to recognize a person’s outstanding accomplishments and service to the community, the state and the nation.

Many people think so highly of the title that they include it in their job résumés—some even in their obituaries.

Harland Sanders of fried chicken fame used it to boost his name and fortune and, in the process, likely became the most famous Kentucky Colonel.

For nearly 100 years, The Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels has focused on social activities such as fellowship and fun at barbecues and banquets and various philanthropic activities. In the last 10 years, the group has rededicated itself and is trying to become more visible and prominent. Its board says, “We don’t want to be the bestkept secret in the state anymore.”

The organization moved into an attractive headquarters in Old Louisville in March 2020 and set up a strong governing infrastructure with a staff of five. It uses more media advertising such as TV, print publications and social media. It is trying to better its record-keeping to track Colonels around the world and, thanks to their financial support, has made large contributions to various causes.

The group raises about $2.8 million a year from members’ contributions to assist nonprofits. It has distributed more than $2 million to nonprofits helping residents in Western Kentucky who were impacted by tornadoes and more than $820,000 to nonprofits in Eastern Kentucky to help flood victims.

28 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY NOV EMBER 2023

It’s no longer your grandpa’s Kentucky Colonels.

“We have a rich history and are trying to become even more robust and helpful,” said Sherry Crose, executive director of The Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels since 2017. “This organization has been part of the fabric of the Commonwealth for a long time and is taking on a stronger role.

“We have this amazing story in helping so many and want to get out there and toot our horns about it to be able to do more. We’re coming up on our 100th birthday, and we want it to stand another 100 years.”

HISTORY OF THE KENTUCKY COLONELS Most states designate citizens with various awards, but only a few, like Kentucky, have ceremonial titles.

Tennessee, Georgia and New Mexico honor notable residents with some version of Colonel or Lieutenant Colonel. Rhode Island bestows the title of Admiral, as does Nebraska, a landlocked state. Indiana had the Sagamore of the Wabash honor but changed it to the Sachem Award, another American Indian term, in 2005.

North Carolina grants an Order of the Long Leaf Pine, and South Carolina gives the Order of the Palmetto. Arkansas designates the Arkansas Traveler, a name based on the tale of a Confederate colonel who got lost in the woods and arrived at the home of an unpleasant settler.

Possibly the best known of these titles is that of the Kentucky Colonel, the nation’s oldest. It dates back to 1813, when Kentucky’s first governor, Isaac Shelby, appointed his son-in-law, Charles Todd, as colonel of the state’s disbanded militia.

In 1885, the title became more civilian in nature when Gov. William Bradley appointed the first “Honorary”

For more information on The Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels, visit kycolonels.org or call 502.266.6848.

Former Gov. A.B. “Happy” Chandler carves up dinner at a Kentucky Colonels barbecue.

Kentucky Colonels. In 1931, Gov. Flem Sampson held an organizational meeting of the Kentucky Colonels and asked the new Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels to “more closely band together into a great non-political brotherhood for the advancement of Kentucky and Kentuckians.” It emphasized social activities and philanthropy.

The group held its first Kentucky Colonels banquet in November of that year and its first Derby Eve Banquet in May 1932. That grand tradition continued until 2001.

Also in the 1930s, the Colonels Barbecue began in Anchorage, moved to Bardstown, and then returned to Louisville. It was discontinued in 2008.

Along the way, The Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels took on a more productive role with its philanthropy.

Its exact active membership is not known, but it certainly must be in the hundreds of thousands. “We really don’t know, but we are getting there,” Crose said of the number of Kentucky Colonels. “We have a database that dates back to the ’50s, and it is about 300,000 people.”

She said her office is working with the Department of Libraries and Archives, which stores lists of Colonel commissions, to come up with a more complete database.

Kentucky Colonels are located in all 50 states and in 68

countries, in chapters from Morganfield, Kentucky, to Nigeria. The Order has emphasized launching new chapters since 2021.

Members include George Clooney, Oscar Tshiebwe, Diane Sawyer, George W. Bush, Dolly Parton, Bill Clinton and Ringo Starr. Two NASA astronauts—the late John Glenn and Gordon Cooper—were commissioned Kentucky Colonels as they orbited Earth.

HOW DO YOU BECOME A COLONEL? Secretary of State Michael Adams’ office is responsible for mailing the certificates of Colonelcy approved by the governor’s office. To be considered for the title of Kentucky Colonel, Adams said, individuals must be nominated by someone who recognizes their exemplary service to others. Nominees must be at least 18 years old and are not required to be from Kentucky.

Nominations are made through the online portal KyColonels.org/nominate. There is no charge to nominate someone, and you cannot nominate yourself to become a Colonel.

Adams’ office, which keeps track of many public k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 29

Left, veterans who are Kentucky Colonels display their banner in Louisville; above, a Kentucky Colonel volunteers on the organization’s Day of Service.

documents, maintains a ledger of nominations approved by the governor’s office.

The cost to the state for the mailings is minimal. “The goodwill they create for the state is worth the small cost,” Adams said.

Once designated a Kentucky Colonel, the title is yours for life.

Executive director Crose said she is not aware of anyone ever losing the title. She acknowledged that her office does not have records of every Colonel. “People relocate,” she said. “Some records from bygone years can’t be located. We just lose touch with them, but we are making every effort to make contact.”

Crose said Colonels who have not heard from the central office in several years should contact it to be updated on The Honorable Order’s current news. For information about membership, call the Kentucky Colonels headquarters at 502.266.6848.

One of the most unusual recipients of a Colonelcy was Waldo Wecker, an Old English sheepdog from Northern Kentucky.

In 1980, enterprising reporter Tom Loftus, then at the Kentucky Post, nominated Waldo for the honor, which was awarded to the dog by late Gov. John Y. Brown Jr. The dog belonged to Loftus’ reporting colleague, David Wecker.

Loftus said he “fudged a bit” on Waldo’s application, listing the animal’s age in dog years instead of human years (42 instead of 7). He also listed Waldo’s profession as “security dog.”

Loftus said he was not trying to diminish the good work of Kentucky Colonels but was highlighting its review process to become a member. The order revoked Waldo’s commission when it was discovered that he was a dog.

Years later, Loftus received an unsolicited Colonel certificate by John A. “Eck” Rose Jr. when Rose was state Senate president. In those days, governors lost their authority when they left the state, and those down the line of succession, such as Rose, took advantage of their temporary power to award Colonel certificates.

Brown and other governors took steps over the years to 30 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY NOV EMBER 2023

streamline the nominating process. In 2016, Bevin temporarily suspended awarding Colonel commissions until he reviewed the criteria for awarding them.

Bevin accused his predecessor, Gov. Steve Beshear, of “rubber stamping” nominations. Former Gov. Julian Carroll said he never vetted a Colonel commission. Bevin added space to the nominating form to ask the sponsor to “make the case” for the nomination.

Gov. Andy Beshear allows anyone to recommend a person to become a Colonel. Traditionally, only a Colonel could make a nomination.

Trust is important in the nomination process, Crose said.

THE COLONELS WORK HARD AND PLAY HARD Member Colonels historically have found many ways to celebrate the organization—from the Derby Eve galas of the 1930s to post-Derby barbecues and fall race days at historic Churchill Downs in Louisville.

These events have transitioned into the Colonels Homecoming Weekend each November in Louisville, which began in 2015. About 600 Colonels generally attend.

This year’s events include a Colonels Meet and Greet, a Welcome Reception and Cocktail Party, a Private Bourbon Tasting at Hermitage Farm in Goshen, and a Day at the Races on Millionaire’s Row at Churchill Downs.

Other social events throughout the year include major league baseball games, webinars, a Day of Service in the spring (now in its second year) and receptions.

If Colonels want to look spiffy at any of these events, there is an online Kentucky Colonels store where they can buy personalized apparel as well as barware and gifts specifically selected for members.

The Colonels’ primary philanthropic work is through its Good Work Program. It manages grants that each year provide more than $3 million to Kentucky nonprofits, helping nearly 4 million people.

There are no dues to be a Colonel, but the average yearly donation is $50, said Colonel Commanding General Gary W. Boschert of Fort Mitchell. Q

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32 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY NOV EMBER 2023

BY DEBORAH KOHL KREMER

The Lexington-based brewery supports a wide variety of nonprofits across the Bluegrass State

N

ot many beer makers have charitable giving in mind when they brew their first batch, but for Lexingtonbased West Sixth Brewing, it was one of the reasons the partners went into business.

Brady Barlow, co-founder of West Sixth, said he and the other founders had three reasons to start a business when they opened 12 years ago: n To make good beer. n To be a good place to work. n To give back to the community and

support nonprofit organizations.

“This is not our first rodeo. We’ve all been in other businesses,” Barlow said. “This was a passion project.

Different people have different middleaged crises. Some people buy a convertible; some people get with a group of guys and start a brewery. I feel like ours is a little more harmless.”

The brewery opened at, naturally,

West Sixth Street in Lexington, and since has opened locations in the NuLu neighborhood of Louisville, a farm just north of Frankfort, and the Bridgeview Box Park at Newport on the Levee.

From day one, the partners knew they would give back, and in the early years, they looked for nonprofits and asked if they could team up. One of the first organizations they partnered with was FoodChain, a group with a mission to increase access to locally sourced, fresh food for everyone. The pairing seemed like a logical choice, as both entities are based in the same building.

FoodChain serves thousands of meals per week at its headquarters and delivers to the doorsteps of homes with food insecurity. It has a teaching kitchen and hosts cooking classes for all ages. Students learn ways to process local fruits and vegetables so that nothing goes to waste.

Since 2011, West Sixth has supported FoodChain by raising funds

at brewery events and donating beer and supplies for FoodChain events.

They also team up for Saturday tours.

One tour takes visitors to see FoodChain’s processing kitchen and onsite aquaponics farm, where the organization raises tilapia and grows microgreens. The West Sixth tour introduces visitors to the brewery to see the entire beer-making process from fermenters through canning.

“West Sixth has amazing, longstanding staff who care about their neighbors and the community,” said Leandra Forman, co-executive director of FoodChain. “They are the best neighbors for us. We know we can always borrow a cup of sugar from them.”

• • •

To commemorate its 10th year in business in March 2022, West Sixth teamed up with Blue Grass Community Foundation to launch West Sixth for a Cause Foundation, which enables the brewery to put all k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 33

visit westsixth.com to learn more and find a west sixth location near you.

“When we opened, our goal was to give back at least 6 percent of profits to our community — turns out, we have far exceeded that 6 percent — and, in fact, have exceeded $1 million of giving! We are so fortunate to have been able to celebrate that number at our West Sixth For A Cause Launch party tonight, surrounded by the wonderful nonprofit partners we are so proud to have worked with over the last decade. We look forward to the continuation of this work through the West Sixth For A Cause Foundation, and we can’t wait to hit a million MORE dollars in giving. ”

West Sixth Brewing, 2022

Follow West Sixth on social media to stay updated on ways to pay it forward.

34 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY NOV EMBER 2023

forms of charitable giving under one umbrella. “We’ve given back about $1.2 million over the last 12 years,” Barlow said.

Each month, West Sixth gives 6 percent of proceeds from a single day to a featured nonprofit. Plus, it offers a daily Wooden Nickel Program in which each tasting flight a customer orders arrives with a wooden nickel.

Customers can use that nickel either to take $1 off merchandise or give $1 to a nonprofit. Barlow said 99 percent of customers give it to the nonprofit.

West Sixth also gives back through events, some of which are recurring, and others of which are one time only. “We’ve learned over the years that listening to what folks need is a lot more effective than just copying and pasting the same program and running it over and over again,” said West Sixth Marketing and Creative Director Kelly Hieronymus.

Hieronymus said that West Sixth participates in more than 400 events outside the taprooms every year, and more than 50 percent of those events have a nonprofit tie. West Sixth’s participation can be financial, but sometimes just by being present, the brand can enhance an event or simply amplify a group’s message. West Sixth serves beer at Pride festivals across the state, donates matching funds for Bluegrass Cycling Club’s annual Pedaling for a Purpose, and hosts a music event for Kentucky Natural Lands Trust.

• • •

The West Sixth Farm sits on 120 acres in Franklin County and offers walking paths, mountain biking trails and an orchard. A representative from Woods & Waters Land Trust visits the farm to lead the weekly Friday Hiking Club on a one-hour guided hike. “This is a way for [Woods & Waters Land Trust] to access folks and tell them about native plants and the way that our landscape and geography is in Kentucky,” Hieronymus said.

In this case, the donation is not financial, but West Sixth is acting as a megaphone for Woods & Waters Land Trust.

Clearly, it is not all about the beer at West Sixth, but the beer is what brings people in the doors, resulting in the brewery’s tremendous growth over the past 12 years. West Sixth offers about 10 standard brews, such as West Sixth Amber Ale and Fuzzy Fields Hazy IPA, along with seasonal rotators, such as DankeChain Oktoberfest and several varieties of taproom exclusives. With the beer selections and four locations in the state, West Sixth is doing something right. But as Barlow said, it all started with the giving. “We were giving back long before we were able,” he said. “Financially, we shouldn’t have been giving back yet, but that’s the reason we got in business.” Q

k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 35

36 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY NOV EMBER 2023

Legacy of Giving B Y JAC K I E H O L L E N K A M P B E N T L E Y

Louisville’s Galt House Hotel,

opened by Al J. Schneider in 1972,

continues its founder’s tradition of contributing to the community

W

hat do an 8-yearold taking a stuffed animal’s “blood pressure,” a traveler taking a break to hug a puppy, and the official launch of the Kentucky Derby Festival have in common?

They’re among the recipients of philanthropic efforts by The Galt House Hotel in downtown Louisville.

The 1,300-room hotel was built in 1972 by Al J. Schneider on a desolate scrap of riverfront land in an effort to revitalize the city. He used only local workers to make sure his community benefited from his generosity.

“It’s the tenets the company was

founded upon when Mr. Schneider built the hotel,” said Lance George, The Galt House’s vice president of sales and marketing. “It’s always been in the company’s DNA. It’s something we’ve always held in high regard—to be very engaged and give back to our community.”

Christopher 2X, the executive director of Christopher 2X Game Changers, credits the 2X Game Changers’ partnership with The Galt House for the success of its Future Healers program. The collaboration of the 2X Game Changers and the University of Louisville School of Medicine and UofL Health/Hospital introduces youth impacted by violence

to the health sciences field while guiding them through the emotional trauma incurred by that violence.

2X said the Galt House didn’t hesitate to offer a meeting space for the program. “They were more, more than willing to embrace our thoughts and our ideas around these 4- to 13-year-old kiddos who have been subjected to first and secondary trauma and the negativity that it entails as it relates to everyday living in their neighborhoods,” he said. “They have gone overboard as a community partner to say [that they] believe in the kids being introduced and exposed to the health sciences with the partnership.” k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 37

Left, Christopher 2X, the executive director of Christopher 2X Game Changers, which partners with The Galt House for its Future Healers program that introduces kids to the health sciences, far left.

Since the program launched in July 2021, the number of participants has grown from 25 to 120. “The Galt House has been right there with us throughout this evolution,” 2X said. “They wanted to do their part as a community partner and a corporate partner.”

• • •

Kentucky’s largest annual event, the Kentucky Derby Festival, has worked with The Galt House for decades. The hotel has served as the host for the They’re Off! Luncheon since 1974. “The Galt House continues to partner with and support KDF,” George said. “They’re our signature community festival and celebrate our favorite time of year in Kentucky.

“We know it’s more challenging than ever to produce events in a postpandemic world. We’re working with KDF on new ways we can provide support as Kentucky’s largest hotel and help ensure the festival is around for many years to come.”

Another institution, the University of Louisville, also has first-hand experience with The Galt House giving. In 2020, the hotel donated $3.5 million to UofL’s Cardinal Athletic Fund.

In announcing the donation, Scott Shoenberger, president and CEO of the Al J. Schneider Company that 38 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY NOV EMBER 2023

owns The Galt House, said it was a chance to be a part of the “excitement” UofL Athletics brings to the community. “We are thrilled to be able to support another iconic Louisville institution in this way and look forward to a longstanding, mutually beneficial partnership,” he said.

Another partnership guaranteed to put a smile on any puppy lover’s face is the one between The Galt House and the Kentucky Humane Society. In addition to monetary donations, The Galt House offers Puppy Grams to those who book meeting and convention space at the hotel.

The KHS brings actual puppies to The Galt House for attendees to snuggle while raising awareness of the society’s efforts to save the lives of animals in the community.

“Any time you play with a little puppy or dog, you get a smile on your face, so it adds value to the customer,” George said. “It always creates a donation opportunity for the Kentucky Humane Society, and it’s just a great combination that we can do different events with.”

KHS CEO Alisa Gray said the puppies typically are 6 weeks old.

They can’t be adopted on site, but the KHS will work with those expressing interest in potential adoption when the puppies are available. Adoptions have been known to result from the Puppy Grams, but Gray said getting the word out is just as valuable.

“It’s definitely great for raising

awareness and promoting the positives of adoption and seeing how easy it is to adopt and to see how many great animals are at shelters,” Gray said. “We like to get creative … and this is just a special, unique way to get the word out about KHS through a business partnership.”

Gray said the KHS is grateful for that partnership. “We love working with other partners, especially partners that are local,” she said.

“The Galt House is a staple to Louisville and does so much for the community, not just for us but for other organizations.”

• • •

The list of organizations The Galt House assists continues to grow.

Donations have been made to the Susan G. Komen organization, Kosair Charities and the Catholic Education Foundation, to name a few.

The Galt House also offers a “give back” option to its customers when booking space. “Every group that comes in has the opportunity to make the choice to give back to whatever philanthropy that’s close to their heart,” George said.

George said it adds up to more than $1 million in charitable giving each year.

The Galt House completed an $80 million renovation project in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. For every dollar spent, 65 cents were reinvested in the community, thus making sure Schneider’s legacy of giving back to the city lives on.

“He always had a love for Louisville,” George said of Schneider, who died in 2001. “Since the inception of our company, we have been committed to investing in Louisville and being legendary in making our community a better place.” Q

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Passion Project Karen Kasper’s love of horses — particularly Arabians —has fueled her successful sculpting career B Y K A S I A PAT E R

K

aren Kasper is a wellknown name among horse breeders, especially those with connections to Arabian horses, the breed that piqued her interest and inspired the artist early on. Since then, Karen has created 139 portrait bronzes of Arabian horses. Of those, 112 are from live models, and 27 are based on historical studies.

To meet her models, Karen traveled long distances, often to the Middle East, from where the pure Arabian horse originates. She then returned home and sculpted them in the Bluegrass State, where she lives in a historical Kentucky home near Lexington with her husband, Ray. At the end of the creative process, the Kasper bronzes traveled back to the horse owners, breeders and art collectors. They have found their way into collections in 28 countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Germany, England, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Karen stressed the benefit of bonding with a live model in its natural environs and studying the horse from nature. “I like to know

exactly what I am trying to express because I love the individuality of the horses,” she said.

This approach lends itself to the distinctive realism she is constantly honing. Karen’s favorite moments are with the horse, especially at a time when her clay is already in process.

She first takes pictures of her model and studies everything about the horse. Later in her career, she began taking skeletal measurements of her live studies.

With the sculpture underway, Karen then goes back to face her model. “Usually, they are in the paddock or in the stall, and all my questions are answered in front of me,” she said.

She thinks body language is as important in horses as it is in people.

There are certain ways the horse might stand if it is feeling a certain emotion, and their psychology is understood when you are attentive.

“It took me years to realize that the most important artistic goal for me is truth,” Karen said. Truthfulness also applies to feelings about the living being in front of her. She is not finished with a sculpture until she feels it is done right. “Nature is the greatest teacher” is a quote she likes

to go by. It comes from her historical mentor, painter George Stubbs (1724-1806), who, like Karen, was a successful self-taught artist.

• • •

Karen’s bonding with horses stems from her childhood in rural Wisconsin, where, as a young girl, she had an artistic gift and a love for these animals, although they were never part of her family narrative. Nobody she knew had horses or rode horses.

Yet, Karen knew exactly where to peer through a fence to catch a glimpse of a Shetland pony in a neighborhood backyard. She longed to be near horses and collected anything that had to do with them—postcards, magazine clippings and her cherished chapter book on horses, which she bought at age 7 with her birthday money. It was in this book that Karen first saw paintings of Arabian horses, which struck her as especially beautiful.

By sixth grade, Karen’s school papers were filled with horse drawings, prompting her homeroom teacher to send her to the principal’s office. An artist himself, the principal tested her drawing skills and sent

k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 41

Below left, Saudi Arabian horse and rider; below right, Kasper’s first sculpture, “The Amulet,” 1984.

her back to class with a charcoal pencil. It thrilled her. She was gently encouraged to draw, just not during class. This early advice went a long way.

Karen continued to draw and develop her artistic voice. She married, and she and Ray operated a dairy farm in Wisconsin with the intention to start a family there.

“It was love at first sight,” she remembered. To help make ends meet, Karen worked at an insurance company until their first son, Jeremy, was born in 1979. While Karen was in the maternity ward, Ray delivered a gift. It was a set of paintbrushes and oils presented with his heartfelt wish: “I want you to stay home and be the horse artist you dreamed to be.” And she did as he said. She likes to add with amusement that their three children knew the kitchen as an art studio. “I don’t cook there very much,” she said with a laugh.

• • •

In 1981, the couple established the Karen Kasper Studio. The artist explained in detail the meaning of that name: “I am Karen, and Ray is Kasper. And together, we are Karen Kasper Studio. Without him, I am just plain Karen.”

42 K E NT U C K Y M O NTHLY NOV EMBER 2023

Ray always has been an important partner in her studio work. He brought his talents and developed expertise in the necessary processes of molding, casting and finishing bronzes. Karen remembered one time when they attended an Egyptian event show and Ray said, “You can’t walk 5 feet without people coming up to you, and nobody knows who I am.”

Karen sensed a hint of frustration dressed in a sense of humor. She went to a kiosk where embroidered jackets and hats were for sale and ordered a hat with “Karen’s Husband” embroidered on it. Ray laughed and wore it with pride. It proved to be quite effective, as he needed to wear it only once, and people would come up to him laughing, knowing instantly who he was.

In 2011, the World Arabian Horse Organization Conference took place in Doha, Qatar. At the event, Karen exhibited 20 percent-scale portrait bronzes of the three champion Arabian stallions of the distinguished equestrian center Al Shaqab, owned

by The Father Emir of Qatar, Sheik Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani. Karen gave a personal slide presentation to the large audience, showing all the steps of creating the portraits.

When she got to the slide where the clays were finished and ready for the

molds, Ray appeared on the screen, layering the rubber mold and casting its plaster shells. Karen remembered commenting to the crowd, “Few people are blessed to meet someone who is their life’s mate and also an equal partner in their life’s work.”

Over the next two years, the Kaspers enlarged these three stallion sculptures from the original 20 percent-scale maquettes to lifesize, then molded and cast them in bronze. These spirited sculptures of Gazal Al Shaqab, Marwan Al Shaqab and Al Adeed Al Shaqab now grace the entrance of the Al Shaqab stadium in Doha, greeting visitors to the international equestrian events held at the venue.

• • •

To follow Karen’s trajectory is to observe her deeper spiritual connection. Certain essential ingredients contributed to the extraordinary life that Karen created for herself, Ray and their three nowadult children. Curiosity and passion fueled her inquisitive and diligent mind. Self-study was in her DNA. Talent, will of steel, faith and her ability to convey her vision brought her to success in the world of equine

art. Few people could adhere to their childhood dream and see it through the way Karen did.

Since her first sculpture in 1984 of an Arabian mare’s head titled “The Amulet”—an image Karen first saw in a continuing dream—she hasn’t let go of the desire to continue rendering the natural beauty of the Arabian horse. She was drawn to its unique characteristics: a high neck and tail carriage and an elegantly dished head with large eyes set widely apart. The mare in “The Amulet” is wearing a teardrop pendant, and Karen imagined that her owner might put a blessing on the horse and enclose it in an amulet such as the one depicted.

The bronze sculpture was released as an edition of 20.

What happened next gave Karen a reason to continue to sculpt. In a horse magazine, she read about an Arabian mare named Moniet el Nefous, a beautiful historic broodmare from Egypt. Karen fell in love with the mare and her family from reading the article and later found a granddaughter of Moniet el Nefous for sale in Indiana.

When Karen saw a video of the granddaughter, Malmiri, she instantly knew she was her dream horse.

A young mother of three at the time, Karen couldn’t afford the asking price for the mare. So, on a lark, she wrote the owner that she was a young artist just starting out who had done her first bronze, and his mare was her dream horse. The owner, Bob Waddell, turned out to be an art collector, and he asked the sculptress to send him a picture of her first bronze, “The Amulet.” Upon seeing the work, he replied, “I think you have talent, and I want to see what you will do with it.

I will accept your bronze as a down payment for this mare.”

As the businessman and philanthropist Waddell was, he also asked Karen to make him a proposal of what she would sculpt next. She didn’t even know she would continue sculpting, but in that moment, she came up with a tailor-made answer for her new patron. “I would love to sculpt Malmiri’s grandmother from Egypt, her four sons, and one daughter who were imported to the United States,” she said.

Karen took a leap of faith that landed her a commission for six full-body sculptures that became the foundation for her life’s work.

“The Moniet Family” collection of bronzes was unveiled in Lexington in 1986 at an event at Fasig-Tipton Thoroughbred sales company.

• • •

In 1992, Kasper joined fellow members of The Pyramid Society on a trip to Egypt to view Egyptian Arabian horses in their homeland.

She discovered that the quality of light there was different, even from the other Gulf countries. She believes it has to do with sand particles high up in the atmosphere diffusing the light, and this observation helped her understand old Orientalist paintings better. The artistic treatment of light is a big factor in most realistic renditions. Karen recalled that it was a fellow artist back in Wisconsin who first encouraged her to try sculpting and recognized that she had a strong understanding of three dimensions

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k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 43

see more...

Follow Karen Kasper’s artistic journey, including with bronzes, paintings, prints and multimedia presentations, at My Journey with the Arabian Horse, a celebration of her art on display at the Al-

Kasper with A.P. Indy and her portrait bronze of the Thoroughbred stallion at Lane’s End Farm.

Marah Arabian Horse Galleries of the International Museum of the Horse at Lexington’s Kentucky Horse Park until Dec. 31.

PH OTO B Y L E E P. T H O MAS, 2008

in her early paintings. It was Karen’s chiaroscuro—the treatment of light and shade defining form—that drew the artist’s attention. She had to look the term up in a dictionary back then.

During Karen’s visit to the Egyptian Agricultural Organization farm near Cairo, she went on another personal search. With all her friends attending a horse show there, she found an elderly Egyptian groom and asked him where the historic broodmare Moniet el Nefous, the grandmother of her mare Malmiri, had lived. Karen wanted to stand in the same sand where this beloved broodmare had stood. The groom showed her to “the old mares’ paddock,” where retired mares would go and live the end of their days with respect. As Karen slid under the fence, she saw a nugget of turquoise—her birthstone—that she believed was placed there for her in a magical way. She still treasures the turquoise as her personal amulet.

• • •

Karen’s affection for mares and foals goes back to her working summers at a horse farm as a teenager.

It grew stronger during the four decades she and Ray bred Egyptian Arabian horses on their farm.

Since her sculpture of the Egyptian broodmare, Karen has portrayed many great foundation mares in the Arabian breed for owners worldwide.

Historically, the Arabian horse has been a gift of high esteem, especially among royalty. In 1937, the Saudi

44 K E NT U C K Y M O NTHLY NOV EMBER 2023

Arabian desert-bred mare Turfa was presented to King George VI of the United Kingdom as a coronation gift

by King Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud, the founder of Saudi Arabia.

Karen captured Turfa in bronze.

The sculpture was premiered at the British Museum in 2012 as part of the major exhibition The Horse: From Arabia to Royal Ascot and is now part of her exhibit at the Kentucky Horse Park.

“Karen Kasper is an inspiration to me, a true sister and friend,” said an important patron, collector and Arabian horse breeder who will remain anonymous. “We think alike, and we talk alike, and our ambitions soar high and over the sky. As for her art, I can never forget when we did the project of Bint Bukra, and a mare of mine wore the Bint Bukra halter. Karen said it gave her a new perspective, and I received bronzes of my two old mares that are magical.

I salute you, Karen Kasper, proud to have you as a member of the family.”

“There are people who change the course of your life, but you don’t know it at the moment,” Karen said.

She is grateful to those people who helped her as mentors and patrons.

Now, she wants to be that person for others. To that end, she enjoys giving presentations on the Arabian horse in art and occasional sculpting workshops with aspiring equine artists, both at home and abroad.

Throughout the years, the Kaspers have donated numerous bronzes to art auctions to benefit worthy causes.

From producing limited-edition prints in support of educational programs on the Arabian horse to recently

donating Karen’s fiberglass life-size Arabian horse statue to raise funds for Central Kentucky Riding for Hope, the charitable spirit of serving by sharing is important to the couple.

• • •

Even though the Arabian horse remains central to everything Karen does artistically, she has been greatly influenced by the Bluegrass State’s devotion to Thoroughbreds and its racing tradition. The Kaspers have loved their “old Kentucky home” since they moved there in 1988. In fact, Karen enjoys translating her sculpting mastery from one breed to another.

After her first Thoroughbred live study of stakes winner and successful sire Nureyev, she received several commissions, and Karen has sculpted some leading Thoroughbred sires, including A.P. Indy, Kingmambo and Dixieland Band. The personal project on which she is working is a bronze portrait of the great Man o’ War, inspirations for which came from many directions.

Still, staying dedicated to her first passion for the Arabian horse, Karen’s goal as an art advocate is to draw attention to the Arabian in art with its long and glorious tradition— to be recognized as a genre instead of a subset of Orientalism. She has vivid ideas for new works of art reaching beyond her love of portraits. “I hope I live long enough to create some of the unique compositions already in my heart, if I may commission myself,” Karen said. Q

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A section for Kentuckians everywhere … inside Kentucky Monthly.

The 1901 Kentucky Derby was the 27th running of the Kentucky Derby. The race took place on April 29, 1901.

K ENTUCKY XPLORER E All About Kentucky

Volume 38, Number 9 – November 2023

Major Taylor Market House, 1303 Bardstown Road, Louisville, in 1936. The three trucks have the store name and “The House of Quality” printed on their back windows. In front of the store is a large white scale and windows advertising “Special sale of canner tools,” honeydew melons, fresh pineapples and strawberries. Along the canopy, lettering advertises “Fruits & Vegetables,” “Headquarters for Table Supplies” and “Meats & Milkfed Poultry.” Dr. Keyes’ dentist office is on the second floor. [Caufield & Shook Collection, University of Louisville Photographic Archives]

Your Letters -- page 48 Honoring Our Veterans -- page 54 Jesse Stuart: Artist of the Written Word -- page 56

“I Remember” By Our Readers

and More!

Featuring Things Old & New About Kentucky

48

THE KENTUCKY EXPLORER

Kentucky Explorer a magazine published for Kentuckians everywhere Charles Hayes Jr. • Founder Stephen M. Vest • Publisher Deborah Kohl Kremer • Editor Rebecca Redding • Typographist One-Year Subscription to Kentucky Monthly: $25

Letters to the Kentucky Explorer Letters may be edited for clarification and brevity.

Blasted Typos!

In “Zachary Taylor’s Kentucky Roots” (September issue of Kentucky Explorer, page 46) the date that Taylor ran for prsident should have been 1848. This was an internal error and not the author’s mistake.

FOUNDED 1986, VOLUME 38, NO. 9

Chemistry Error There was an error in the “The Ash Hopper and Lye Soap” article in the September issue (page 48). The article refers to lye as an “acid.” That is not correct. Lye is a “base.”

The pH scale is a measure of acid/base balance—pH=7 is neutral, below pH=7 is “acidic,” and above pH=7 is “basic.”

Wood ash lye, basic, is typically potassium hydroxide (KOH). Sodium hydroxide (caustic soda, NaOH) is also commonly referred to as “lye.”

Traditional lye soap is made by mixing fats/oils with a “base.”

Bill Hopping, Augusta

Who Remembers the Kentucky Military Institute?

Thanks to a loyal reader and alumni of the Kentucky Military Institute (KMI) for asking this question!

KMI was founded in 1845 by Robert T.P. Allen, a West Point graduate, veteran of the Seminole War, and professor at Transylvania University. The Institute was chartered in 1847. It was located 6 miles south of Frankfort and drew students largely from the Ohio River Valley and the Southern states.

The school produced scores of soldiers for both the Union and Confederacy during the Civil War. In 1894, it moved to Mt. Sterling, and then in 1896 moved to Lyndon in Jefferson County.

In 1906, the Institute aquired property in Venice, Florida, and sent 300-plus students there via train for three months during the winter.

KMI closed its doors in 1971.

Above, Ormsby Hall and garden at the Lyndon campus of the Kentucky Military Institute; right, cadet inspection, 1935; below, an advertisement for the Institute.

In memory of Donna Jean Hayes, 1948-2019 Harland Sanders, founder of KFC, was commissioned a Kentucky Colonel in 1935 by Gov. Ruby Laffoon.

November 2023 49

Louisville Courier-Journal Culinary Archive:

Holiday Dishes From Yesteryear

By Jackie Young, MLS, Ed.D Library Director, Sullivan University

Published Dec. 3, 1978

HOLIDAY DELIGHTS: For many, fruitcake is a delicious treat that is practically synonymous with the season. For others, it’s the least desirable dessert.

Published Dec. 8, 1993

Published Nov. 11, 1977

Published Dec. 4, 1949

Happy holidays from The Courier-Journal kitchens!

Now that the spooky season has passed, it’s time to think about the winter holidays and what we are going to EAT! My favorite holiday food is fruitcake, but, sadly (for

them), no one else in my family shares my enthusiasm for this cake. The C-J archives are chock-full of wonderful holiday delights, and I’ve worked up an appetite trying to decide what to include in the recipes this month.

You might be inspired to try an oldie such as the fruitcake or the German pork cake. Whatever you are inspired to put on your holiday table, have a blessed and beautiful holiday season.

In 2021, Sullivan University acquired The Louisville Courier-Journal’s culinary archives, which include 30,000 recipe cards, 1,500 cookbooks and decades worth of newspaper clippings. Each month, Kentucky Explorer shares a piece of this history, along with a recipe or two, and takes a look at how Kentucky cooked. For more information about Sulivan University, please visit Sullivan.edu or call 1.800.844.1354.

The Lexington-Fayette metro area includes five additional counties: Clark, Jessamine, Bourbon, Woodford and Scott.

4 THE 50 THEKENTUCKY KENTUCKYEXPLORER EXPLORER Send memories to Deborah Kohl Kremer at deb@kentuckymonthly.com or mail to Kentucky Monthly, Attn: Deb Kremer, P.O. Box 559, Frankfort, KY 40602.

“I Remember” Send your memory in today!

Whittling Potatoes

By Diana Hamilton, Brooksville I was born into a tobacco-farming family, with many generations before me farming tobacco. In my opinion, I was born into the hardest work imaginable to humankind.

August held possibly the most miserable of all the work that came with raising tobacco—cutting and “housing” each stalk. Anyone who’s witnessed summer’s end in Kentucky knows of our state’s hellish heat and humidity.

Add to these physical conditions the hardest manual labor one may ever know, and you have a 12- to 14-hour day of pure discomfort, only to go to bed and repeat the next day.

Perhaps the only highlight of a day housing tobacco was the midday feast the farmer’s wife prepared for every soul willing to show up for the day’s labor. My grandmother was a skilled cook and could turn the most meager of ingredients into the best thing you ever put in your mouth.

On any of these days of food preparation, my 5-year-old self sat on the cool, scrubbed linoleum of my grandparents’ tiny kitchen as my grandmother flitted about, at times stepping over me. I loved to watch her cook and wanted to be centered in that kitchen so badly that Grandma gave me a Tupperware bowl with a potato or two inside. She’d loan me her dullest paring knife and ask me to peel those potatoes so she could add them to the boiling cauldron on the stove to later be mashed.

If you are from Kentucky, you also know that we Kentuckians rarely use a vegetable peeler to remove skins from the potatoes. Instead, we skillfully whittle the peel from the spuds with a paring knife, as this method is quicker to a practiced set of potato-peeling hands.

My grandmother was one of those skilled artisans. She could remove the entire peel in one long, nearly transparent brown ribbon. In comparison, I sat on the cool floor with the bowl in my lap, poking at the potato with the dull knife. I can still see that knife and would give my eyeteeth to own it today. It had a once-white, yellowed handle and a curved blade from years of this exact chore.

The blade was only about an inch and a half long with the sharp tip broken off. I’d try to imitate my grandmother’s

By Our Readers

speed and accuracy as I scraped away at the potatoes’ rough brown skin.

While I “helped,” I soaked in the smells from that tiny kitchen like a sponge. Fresh green beans boiled away on a burner, a ham bone peeking out from the top of the pan.

The hearty scent of meatloaf wafted out of the oven each time the door was opened and blended with the crispness of just-picked cucumbers and sun-loved beefsteak tomatoes. The earthy sweetness from the roasting ears of corn on the cob made my stomach growl. Perhaps best of all, the velvety thick smell of transparent pie Transparent pie cooling on the table permeated the house, carried by the scant breeze floating through the open windows. The only central air at the time was provided by a breeze and funneled around the house by a couple of carefully placed box fans.

At noon, my grandfather brought his crew in from the field. They washed up in basins set on the back porch by my grandmother along with fresh bars of pumice soap to remove the tobacco gum. The entire crew sat around the table on any piece of furniture that could pass as a chair to allow each laborer a share in the feast.

The ladies and kids ate after the men had been fed. I recall my turn taking longer than Christmas to arrive as I eyed the pies, willing slices be spared by the crew. I was 11 before I started going to the field to cut tobacco myself and learned to stack as pretty a load as any grown man. After that, I got to be one of the first at my grandmother’s table.

My grandmother died a year later, during housing season. The noon feasts ceased and were replaced by lunchmeat sandwiches as my sisters and I were needed in the fields and barns.

I have kept a love of cooking and feeding people, just like my grandmother. I was probably a teenager before I knew vegetable peelers existed. Today, I replicate this exact meal for my family when the weather is hot and sticky and the vegetables are fresh from the garden. My grown young men eat as heartily as any of those tobacco hands did. As I pull my favorite, worn, bent-bladed paring knife from my drawer and remove a long strip of peel from a potato, I hope my grandmother is watching patiently.

Owensboro is home to two private four-year colleges, Brescia University and Kentucky Wesleyan College.

November 2023 51

Memories of The 1937 Flood As told by Alma Wolfzorn Ciafardini to her daughter, Pamela Ciafardini Casebolt, Alexandria In 2007, I had this conversation with my then-83-year-old mother regarding the 1937 flood and its 70th anniversary. We pulled out my grandfather’s photo album, and my mother identified the photographs pasted within. She reminisced of her experience during that harrowing time. Below is her account of her activities on Jan. 22, 1937, as the floodwaters rose in the west end of Newport, disrupting everyday life.

I was in the seventh grade at Corpus Christi School, around 13 years old, during the flood of 1937. I remember being at school the Friday before Black Sunday, which was on Jan. 24, 1937. The Bishop of Covington had come to the school, and, after looking at the amount of water in the basement of the building, he decided the furnace needed to be turned off, and the school had to be closed.

As I was leaving school, my uncle, George Jenner, saw me and asked why I was off from school. I told him, and he said he could use my help at his home. My aunt, Emilie “Meale,” had Alma Wolfzorn just delivered a baby that week and was still Ciafardini bedridden. They had two other little girls under the age of 3. Uncle George was wearing boots, so he carried me into their house on Lindsey Street. They rented the second floor of the home from the Duttle family, who had already moved out of the house. The heavy rains came, and by Sunday, we had to leave because the water was fast approaching the second floor.

I remember the boats waiting outside in the water; I remember how deep the water was and how scary everything looked. They wrapped Aunt Meale in blankets and put her in one boat and then handed her the new baby. I went in another boat with the two young children.

We were then taken to another relative’s house on higher ground until we could move back into our home. My entire family was split up during the flood, with several of us staying with various relatives.

The Duttle house on Lindsey Street in Newport, where my Uncle George and Aunt Meale rented the second floor.

Our home at 914 Central Avenue in Newport, where I lived with my parents, Andy and Rosina Steffen Wolfzorn. By the end of Black Sunday, the water had come up to the top of the basement window. The men were cleaning up the front lawn as the water receded.

A side view of the Andrew L. Wolfzorn Dairy, where my dad worked, at 913 Liberty Street behind our home. A lot of mud had to be cleared before my dad could start working again.

Above, a house on Isabella Street with residents loading their belongings onto a barge to take them to a safe place; left, Corpus Christi Church at Ninth and Isabella streets. The statues and benches inside floated in the water. All of the statues had to be repainted after they were cleaned, and the benches were salvageable after they were cleaned.

Editor’s Note: The Ohio River Flood of 1937 wreaked havoc from Pittsburgh to Cairo, Illinois. At one time, all 981 miles of the river were outside its banks. The death toll was 385, and 1 million people were left homeless. It was the highest flood ever recorded in the Ohio Valley. In Northern Kentucky, the river crested at 79.99 feet—28 feet above flood stage. In Louisville, the water reached a height of 40 feet, which resulted in almost 70 percent of the city being underwater.

Sixteen states have a county named for Kentuckian Henry Clay.

6 THE 52 THEKENTUCKY KENTUCKYEXPLORER EXPLORER

middleman,” and, as you will see, the most important player in the process and an unsalaried position at that.

Dad pulled the wagon of loose hay to the front of the barn below the big opening. Until we got a second tractor, he unhooked the tractor from the wagon and drove around to the back of the barn. About that time, I made my way up into the hot loft, climbing up to the top rear of the loft and then stood on a 2-by-4 that was provided for me. My brother, Bob, was on the wagon in front, with my dad in the rear of the barn. Dad then tied the rope to the tractor,

By Charles Wilson, Middletown which came up to the barn and through some pulleys all My first job was on our farm on Antioch Road in Shelby the way along the top of the loft and down onto the wagon County. Back before hay balers came along, farmers had to where Bob was. The rope was attached to a big jaw-like put the hay on the wagons with fork, and Bob put it into the hay to pitchforks and a lot of sweat. We grab a big bite. used our horses, Tom and Jerry, to As my brother finished putting pull the wagons. Tom was killed the fork into the hay and grabbing by a bull, and a little later, Jerry a big bite, he yelled, “OK.” Being succumbed from a broken heart, the middleman, I also yell, “OK,” we assumed. After that, Dad to my dad as I looked out my little bought a Ford tractor. (I was hole in the back of the loft. Then, recently reminded that we had to Dad moved forward with the use a crank to start the tractor.) tractor, and the rope tightened.

Loose hay was pitched up onto The fork of hay lifted off the the wagon, and someone on the wagon, up to the big opening, and wagon kept building it up until into the loft traveling toward me. I you had a full load of hay. Later, had to choose which spot to have we had “hay loaders” that were the hay dropped, and it was a bit Not the actual barn from the story, but this pulled behind the tractor. The scary when I had to drop it near photo shows an example of a hay loft entry. loader picked up the hay and put where I was standing. At the proper it onto the wagon, and the person time, I yelled, “WHOA,” which on the wagon spread it out until you had a load. triggered a number of things. Dad stopped going forward Now, the trick was to get the hay into the barn loft. Of and began backing up. Bob pulled the rope with the big course, in the early days, this was done the hard way with fork dropping the hay in the chosen spot. Then, he pulled pitchforks. It could get very hot doing this work in July the rope until it dropped back onto the wagon, and I and August. Dad developed a much better way, as did relaxed and waited for the next one. I was looking out of a many other farmers, to get this done. hole about 2 by 2 feet prepared for this. Throughout the You probably have noticed a big opening at the top process, wasps flew around, and I didn’t like that a bit. (I center of many dairy barns. There is no door there, just an realized later that they were mud daubers and not as opening. The purpose of the opening was to provide a way dangerous as wasps.) to get the hay into the loft of the barn. Farmers were smart Not until many years later did I stop to think what an indeed. Dad even had to reconstruct the roof of the barn interesting process this was. And, really, how would they to handle this process. Much planning went into this have handled it without the middleman that I was. So effort. A track had to be installed from the front to the now, nearly 80 years later, I suppose if they were putting back of the barn along the top of the loft. A series of up hay in this manner, Bob would text Dad from the pulleys and rollers, rope and a big fork (like a big jaw) was wagon, and I would lose my job. But no, they would not put into place. know at what spot to drop the fork of hay. I would still be Here is where I came in. I would become “the true needed.

“I Remember”

continued

Innovations in Putting Up Hay

The Railroad Knew How to Do It:

The Original Text Message

By J.R. Harris, Louisville In 1957, I worked for the Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) Railroad in Covington. I was hired as a fireman. Steam engines were phased out at that time. Telephones were not on the first diesel-powered engines.

Communication among workers in railroad yards or on the road was done with lanterns; hand signals were used with crew on the engine or crew in the caboose. Passing

trains checked each other’s cars for stuck brakes and hot boxes oiling the axles and wheels.

Messaging also was handled by a telegrapher in a shanty located several miles outside a city that had passenger train service. Telegraph operators getting messages of a problem ahead or changes for trains coming or going wrote a message on a yellow notepad and tied it to a thin 8-footlong pole equipped with a 15-inch fork on one end.

The telegrapher then signaled the approaching engine that there was a message. The brakeman or fireman then positioned himself to pick up the message the telegrapher had tied on a string. It was a simple exchange that worked.

Jefferson Davis attended Transylvania University and transferred to West Point in 1823.

November 2023 53

Have You Ever Looked Into the Eyes of a Rooster?

By Carol Ingle, Scott County

get it when I got off the bus. I needed the sword for snakes and if anything else was in the road. I have been known to swat a wasp or yellow jacket when the need arose. I’ve battled hornets, too. B sometimes jumped me on the road.

Many times after an attack from B, I’d come in the house crying from pain and a lot of frustration. Granny would say, “Why do you let that rooster pick on you?

What are you afraid of? It’s just a rooster.”

I said, “I’m afraid I’ll kill him.” She just shook her head.

One day, he landed right in the middle of my chest and looked me in the eye. I’ve seen that look in a human’s eyes, but that’s another story. The only way I can describe that look is to tell you to look for yourself. When B looked me in the eye, I froze. He jumped to the top of my head and started pecking me. I was swinging the sword and finally dropped it. I reached up, grabbed B, and—along with a clump of my hair—threw him to the ground.

I saw B jump on the mule and the cow, and he stood the fence above the hogs. Sometimes, he and another rooster squared off, but as soon as the big jump toward each other happened, the dogs separated them. One day when they started fighting, feathers began to fly. The dogs could not separate them as quickly as usual. When they did stop the fight, B did a double take on his tail. He had some tail feathers missing. He charged the other rooster again. It was a much longer fight. The dogs were fed up.

When the roosters finally stopped fighting, B did not look as bad as the other guy. Matter of fact, he jumped that rooster every time he saw him. He was bad to the bone.

One day I came home from school and smelled chicken cooking. I yelled, “Did somebody hit a chicken today?”

Granny yelled back, “No, your bully jumped on the wrong person today.” B had jumped on Granny, and she wrung his neck, cleaned him and cooked him. Best chicken I ever ate.

We had animals on our farm in Wayne County in the 1950s—two pigs, sometimes piglets, a milk cow, a mule, and lots of chickens. We had a couple of outside dogs that were never chained up. Their names were Happy and Poky. They never jumped up on anybody, and I did not play with them. They kept their distance from us. They got fed twice a day and had huge pans of water. They barked if anyone pulled up the road or parked in the yard.

Happy chased rabbits. When that happened, my stepgrandfather (Granny had remarried after Grandpa died) got his shotgun out, and sometimes, he killed the rabbit.

My granny took the rabbit and cleaned it. She put a nail in the rabbit right below the neck. Next, she used her butcher knife—the one I was not allowed to touch—and started the process of skinning the rabbit. I always watched. It was my choice to watch or stay in the house. I watched, and by watching her, I learned. In my years of breathing, I’ve cleaned rabbits, squirrels, groundhogs, deer, and frogs. I learned how to clean fish. For all of you vegetarians, I’ve raised a garden and picked all kinds of fruits. I’ve foraged for wild items. I only got to eat animals killed in the winter. Granny said that they weren’t fit to eat if killed in the summer.

I never was allowed to get close to the animals. Very rarely did I slop the hogs. I was told the hogs would eat me. I never saw my granny milking cows. I shucked corn for the chickens. I closed the henhouse door after the chickens went inside as the sun was going down. Our chickens ran free around our yard. If one got hit by a car, we ate them if we could.

Among them was a rooster. Oh, I had a name for him. I won’t say what his name was, but it started with a “B.” I hated him, and he hated everyone. When I fetched water from the spring—sometimes several times a day—I took only one bucket at a time for two reasons. One, I was too little to carry two buckets full of water. However, I really needed my right hand free to carry a tobacco stick to fight off B’s attacks on me. That’s reason two. B attacked head-on. He jumped from roofs and the bushes. He did not attack me at the spring.

I once threw a whole bucket of water on him, and he stopped going to the spring. On my way back from the spring, he jumped me more times than I have fingers and toes to count with.

I had strict orders where B was concerned.

One, I could defend myself, but I could not hurt him. Two, I shouldn’t show fear. Animals can smell fear. B smelled terrified off me, and he seemed to love it. I could not figure out how to hit him and not hurt him. That stick was my sword. I held it tight. I carried that Sometimes, the store came to you … sword with me anytime I was outside. I carried A traveling grocery truck, Harlan, 1930s it to the school bus stop and hid it so I could Louisville was chartered in 1780 and named in honor of King Louis XVI of France.

Honoring Our Veterans Gatewood, “and I think Doctor Wood,” protested, calling the plan an act of treachery. They threatened to press

By Dr. Lindsey Apple, Georgetown charges if the officers acted. The incident speaks to the On the night of Aug. 29, 1886, three American soldiers character traits taught to Henry Clay’s descendants. sat cold, hungry and outnumbered in the camp of Apache Personal honor stood above all else. The Apache leader had leader Geronimo. The circumstances assured tensions. acted in good faith. He should be treated the same.

American and Mexican forces had chased Geronimo A surrender was arranged, but the Apache kept their throughout the Sierra Madre Mountains for months. Blood weapons. On the march to meet Miles, Gatewood, Clay and had been spilled, and atrocities had been committed by all Wood found themselves in the camp of armed Apache. sides.

Lawton had gone to find a lost unit of his command. There One soldier, Thomas J. Clay, is scarce information about the is rarely mentioned, yet he had a conversations of that cold night, story to tell. It is an account of but mindsets were changed on culture and clashing values, both sides. The American officers personal honor, duty and the were without food. Clay was costs paid for exercising both. amazed when Natchez, the He was the grandson of Apache chief, offered to share Kentucky statesman Henry Clay, food with the three officers. And who often had taken the side of apparently there was no plot to the Native American at a kill the outnumbered Americans. political cost to himself. Like all Lawton’s forces returned near Clay descendants, Tom learned daybreak, and the journey to meet From left, Lt. Leonard Wood, unidentified, Lt. Wilder, Capt. it was his duty to live the values Henry Ware Lawton, four unidentified, and Thomas J. Clay. Miles continued. Miles’ terms attributed to the patriarch. initially were rejected, but Tom initially trained as a physician but chose the Geronimo surrendered for the fourth and last time. Clay military to seek the fame expected of him. Service to nation was ordered to follow the wagons that carried the Apache was a paramount obligation of the Clay family. In 1845, one and shoot to kill if anyone tried to escape. year after losing a hotly contested and corrupt election for Clay commanded the guard that accompanied the the presidency, Henry Clay wrote to another grandson, Apaches on a later segment of the trip. Leading units of the “Recognize at all times the paramount right of your 10th Cavalry, the Buffalo Soldiers, he brought the Apache Country to your most devoted service, whether she treats across Arizona and Texas to San Antonio. In Arizona, a you ill or well, and never let selfish views or interests group of men who liked neither the Apache nor the Black predominate over the duties of patriotism.” soldiers confronted Clay’s troop. Ordering his second in Receiving a commission from President Rutherford B. command to move the men beyond the town, Clay offered Hayes in April 1877, Tom headed west to participate in the to buy drinks for the hostile men, later catching up to his Indian Wars. Tall, lithe, and an excellent horseman and men. Clay thus aborted a second threat to Geronimo. marksman, Clay was a recruit for a unit called “Lawton’s None of this is to suggest that Clay and Geronimo Athletes.” Under orders from Gen. Nelson Miles, Capt. became friends. If the Native leader had attempted to Henry Ware Lawton and his athletes were ordered into the escape, Clay would have done his duty. However, there harsh land of the southwest to hunt Geronimo. was something that suggests a level of respect between the The military leadership, time proved, was overconfident. two. In the Clay Family Papers at the University of Gen. George Crook had sought Geronimo’s surrender Kentucky, there is a handwritten note signed by “Geronimo through negotiation. Miles sought to show the superiority and Natchez.” The letter claimed, correctly, that the of American manhood by beating the Apache on their own government had not lived up to the promises made by territory and to embarrass Crook at the same time. Lawton Miles. It asked Clay for his help. The Clay family maintains pursued Geronimo for four months over 2,500 miles. The that he testified in an official inquiry substantiating brutal conditions defeated both American soldiers and Geronimo’s claims.

Apache men, women and children. Miles finally In 1894, Clay retired as a captain due to heart issues, compromised—sort of. He brought in Crook’s leading according to his physician the result of the harsh negotiator, Lt. Charles Gatewood, an officer who had conditions experienced during service. In Lexington, he gained the trust of Geronimo and his tribal leaders. raised Thoroughbreds with his brother George and served Geronimo agreed to negotiations. as a highly respected judge of racing rules. Over the mantel Clay’s story begins before that cold night in Geronimo’s at Balgowan, the Clay home (now a part of Calumet Farm) camp. The Americans first met Geronimo near a town hung an Indian bridle. According to the Clay family, it was called Fronteras, far from Miles’ camp. Gatewood a gift from Geronimo, one man of honor to another. A Clay convinced Geronimo to talk to Lawton first, then Miles. descendant had done his duty to his nation and family While Geronimo waited, several officers proposed to values. He had spoken the truth for the powerless and the capture or kill the Apache. According to Clay, he, distained.

No Feet of Clay: A Kentucky Clay

Estill County was formed in 1808 from Clark and Madison counties. It was Kentucky’s 50th county.

54 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY NOV EMBER 2 0 2 0

November 2023 55

Thomas Peake and the 10th Kentucky

who comforted him, telling him that he would be all right.

The prophecy turned out to be correct, as Peake was found

By Robert Zwicker, zwicker@uky.edu by his Union compatriots and removed from the My great-grandfather, Thomas Peake, was born on battlefield.

March 24, 1843. The family farm was in the Nelson County My family loves and preserves the vision story, but the section of Holy Cross parish, in the midst of the original Surgeon General’s assessment of Peake’s situation was Catholic settlements at Pottinger’s Creek. Thomas’ parents, somewhat more mundane. This report states that Peake William and Lucinda Edelen Peake, were competent suffered gunshot wounds to the right arm, thigh and leg, farmers who managed to raise 12 children to adulthood. described as “flesh wounds, but serious.” After the battle, The Civil War started at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, Peake joined with other of the Chickamauga wounded on on April 12, 1861, and by the fall the long and painful trip to the of that year, recruiting agents Union Hospital in Nashville, a from both armies were place considered by some operating throughout Kentucky. cynics as being even more Union patriot John M. Harlan dangerous than the battlefield. completed his organization of From Nashville, he was sent the 10th Kentucky Volunteer home to recuperate.

Infantry in Washington County While Peake was healing in in November 1861, and many Nelson County, the 10th young men from neighboring Kentucky returned to action as Marion and Nelson counties the Union Army started its joined the unit, including Tom march toward Atlanta. This Peake and his cousin, John included a heroic uphill attack The Thomas Peake family in an undated photo.

Peake. Many of the men in the in the capture of Missionary 10th Kentucky were Catholics, grandsons of the Maryland Ridge, Tennessee. The regiment participated at least pioneers who settled that area earlier. It is interesting to peripherally and took some casualties in the various other note that while these men were signing on to preserve the battles along the road to Atlanta. Peake returned to the Union, most of their eligible cousins in southern Maryland unit in March 1864. The next serious combat action for the at that time were joining the Confederate Army. regiment occurred at the battle of Jonesboro on Aug. 31 The 10th Kentucky was quickly involved in front-line and Sept. 1, 1864. The men of the 10th Kentucky were operations and was peripherally involved in the Battle of heavily engaged in this battle and were especially noted in Mill Springs in January 1862. By April 1862, the 10th was in the records for their heroic and effective bayonet attacks. the vicinity of Corinth, Mississippi, in the aftermath of the The Confederate loss at Jonesboro quickly led to the Battle of Shiloh, and undertook military operations there collapse of the defenses of Atlanta, so the 10th Kentucky and in northern Alabama and central Tennessee that contributed more than its share to the evacuation and summer. On July 25, two companies of the regiment were eventual burning of that city. captured by the Confederates at Courtland, Alabama. This The Jonesboro attack was the last serious combat action service was followed by further actions in Tennessee and, that the 10th Kentucky would see, as the enlistment time following the Confederate invasion of the state, in of those soldiers was running short. From Atlanta, they Kentucky. The regiment was present at the Battle of were sent north, undertaking temporary duty at Ringgold, Perryville on Oct. 8, 1862, but was not committed to Georgia, and Chattanooga. From there, they were ordered combat. After the Confederate Army was forced out of home to Kentucky on Nov. 14.

Kentucky, the 10th became part of Gen. William The 10th returned to Louisville, where the regiment Rosecrans’ sweep through Tennessee, culminating in the (what was left of it) was disbanded, and the men capture of Chattanooga. (including Peake) were honorably discharged from Army These activities led up to the regiment’s great service on Dec. 6, 1864. The 10th Kentucky began its confrontation at the Battle of Chickamauga. The 10th service in November 1861 with 867 men marching off to Kentucky was one of the first infantry regiments war. By the time of their action at Jonesboro, fewer than committed to combat at Chickamauga on the morning of 140 were left fit for duty.

Sept. 19, 1863, and one of the last to leave after the great Peake returned to farming in Nelson County, where he Union defense of Horseshoe Ridge on Sept. 20. But Tom married Theresa Elizabeth Culver at St. Thomas Church Peake wasn’t present at this final action, as he had been and raised a large family. In his later years, he collected badly wounded earlier in the battle. This event gave rise (after endless paperwork) his veteran’s pension until he to a much-cherished family legend told to me by my older died in 1915. His wife then collected the pension until her aunts who knew Peake. death in 1920. In spite of the dangers and the odds he While lying alone in the woods after he was shot, faced, Peake survived the Civil War in good health, to his bleeding profusely and wondering if he would live or die, great good fortune and to the great good fortune of myself in his delirium, Peake had a vision of the Blessed Mother, and my many Kentucky cousins.

Lexington’s largest employer, the University of Kentucky, employed 16,743 as of 2020.

56

THE KENTUCKY EXPLORER

Jesse Stuart: Artist of the Written Word

By John W. McCauley, Lexington

K

entucky has been blessed to have known several great writers, but perhaps, none quite like Jesse Stuart. The man with the bull-tongue plow captivated a nation and the world with his novels, poetry and short stories. He was a pure and unfiltered artist of the written word. In 1954, he was named Kentucky’s second Poet Laureate, along with Edwin Carlile Litsey, by the Kentucky General Assembly.

Jesse Hilton Stuart was born on Aug. 8, 1906, in Greenup County. His parents were Mitchell and Martha Stuart. He was the second of seven children and lived in a one-room log cabin. His father was a coal miner and tenant farmer.

He attended a one-room school for a couple of years before dropping out to help his father farm. His mother had scant schooling, and his father was illiterate but wanted Jesse to become a school teacher.

At 15, Stuart was eager to continue his education, so he passed an entrance exam to return to school. In high school, he was introduced to writers such as Nathaniel Hawthorne; Alfred, Lord Tennyson; and Henry David Thoreau. After graduating from Greenup High School, Stuart held several jobs before attending college.

College admission proved to be a bit of a challenge, but Stuart was accepted at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee. As a student, he had no success in getting his early poems published. He became editor of the college newspaper and was the first to publish his own poetry. This hard-working and determined young man worked his way through college and graduated in 1929.

Stuart returned home, where he taught for one year at a one-room high school with 14 students. The following year, he became principal of Greenup High School.

Stuart had done summer graduate work at Peabody College in Nashville, and he was eager to formally continue his education. He returned as principal of Greenup High School for another year before his acceptance into graduate school at Vanderbilt University. While at Vanderbilt, Stuart wrote an autobiography, Beyond Dark Hills, that he submitted as a term paper, all while working his way through school.

This was exceptional and certainly not the norm for a graduate student. His writing was influenced by his Appalachian roots and sometimes considered homespun.

Stuart was always direct and welcomed a good debate, especially with Robert Penn Warren, a fellow Kentuckian who became a Pulitzer Prize winning author and United States poet laureate.

Stuart remained at Vanderbilt for one school year before returning home as a school administrator and to continue his writing. As head of the Greenup County schools, he became the youngest superintendent in the state.

Back in W-Hollow, while plowing the fields, Stuart began to write 703 sonnets. Published in 1934, Man with a Bull-Tongue Plow was considered to be one of the best works in American poetry since Walt Whitman’s works. Stuart’s next book was a collection of short stories, Head o’ W-Hollow, published in 1936, and his first novel, Trees of Heaven, was published in 1940.

In 1939, he married Naomi Deane Norris, a schoolteacher, and they made their home in Stuart’s beloved W-Hollow. They had one daughter, Jessica Jane, who became an author.

During World War II, Stuart served as a lieutenant in the United States Navy. Being the consummate writer, he penned the novel Foretaste of Glory, and a poetry collection, Album of Destiny, was published, all while he was in the service.

In 1954, Stuart suffered the first of several heart attacks and escaped a near-death experience. A long recovery followed, which would pave the way for his third autobiography, The Year of My Rebirth, published in 1956.

His books are too numerous to mention, but some of my favorites are Daughter of the Legend, Man with a Bull-Tongue Plow, Kentucky Is My Land, Hold April, The Year of My Rebirth, Plowshare in Heaven and 32 Votes Before Breakfast.

During his lifetime, Stuart published more than 60 books, which included 460 short stories and 2,000 poems.

The prolific writer won numerous awards and traveled and lectured around the globe, but he never lost touch with his home and roots back in W-Hollow.

Stuart died on Feb. 17, 1984, at the age of 77. He is buried near W-Hollow at Plum Grove Cemetery in Greenup County. He was survived by his wife, Naomi, who passed on June 22, 1993.

My mother, Jeanette Gilliam McCauley, served on the Kentucky affiliate of the American Heart Board and got to know Jesse while he served as state chairman. She loved his writing, and his books were always prevalent in our home. On Sept.2, 2014, she passed just days before her 96th birthday. At her graveside service on a tree-covered hillside in Harlan County, I read Stuart’s poem, “Her Work is Done.”

Almost 40 years after his death, the great work of Jesse Stuart carries on through the Jessie Stuart Foundation in Ashland, which promotes his literary legacy and Appalachian way of life.

Berea College, established in 1855, was the first coed college in the South to admit both Black and white students.

November 2023 57

Remembering Millers Creek Railroad

By David Morse, Frankfort

J

ohn Caldwell Calhoun Mayo was the first to acquire the rights to the coal from the land along Miller (or Miller’s) Creek in Johnson County. He later sold them to Northern Coal & Coke.

NC&C was then purchased by the Consolidation Coal Company (CONSOL).

CONSOL built the 4.4-milelong Millers Creek Railroad to haul the coal out. The railroad company was incorporated on May 28, 1909, and construction started soon after. The principal office was in Ashland. Millers Creek Railroad connected with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway at Van Lear Junction, now known as West Van Lear, on the south side of Dawkins. The first load of coal, which was from Mine #151, was shipped in 1910. In 1913, a 1.3-mile branch was built to serve the new Mine #155. In all, Millers Creek Railroad served five CONSOL coal mines.

CONSOL later sold Millers Creek Railroad to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. The deed was transferred on Dec. 31, 1917. Interestingly, the track did not connect to the B&O Railroad. The B&O was reliant on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway to handle freight traffic that was inbound to and outbound from this line. One wonders what the B&O had planned when they bought this line.

On July 31, 1917, CONSOL bought the line back and later sold it to the Chesapeake & Ohio.

While operating, Millers Creek Railroad owned two steam locomotives, four freight cars and one passenger car.

In 1912, CONSOL created the company town Van Lear to serve its employees. The town was named for Van Lear

CLASSIFIED ADS WANTED TO BUY — All types of antiques and collectibles. Top prices for gold, silver and costume jewelry. Scrap gold. Gold and silver coins. Wrist and pocket watches. Collections. Early post cards and fountain pens. Civil War swords and other military items. Vintage toys. Pocket knives. Lighters. Old eyeglasses. Pottery and stoneware. All types of railroad items. Advertising signs.

Handmade quilts. Marbles. Jars. Much, much more. Complete and partial estates. Call Clarence, buyer for more than 30 years, at 606.531.0467. (F-D23) Reach 120,000 readers with classified advertising available in Kentucky Explorer. Classified ads $50 per issue (up to 25 words).

Contact Deborah Kohl Kremer at deb@kentuckymonthly.com

Black, a member of the CONSOL board of directors. He also was involved with the Fidelity Trust Bank, which had loaned CONSOL the money to build the Millers Creek Railroad. Today, Van Lear is best known for Loretta Lynn and her sisters Crystal Gayle and Peggy Sue Webb Wright.

In 1945, CONSOL merged with the Pittsburgh Coal Company, and in 1945, the new company sold its property in Van Lear. Residents of the company-owned houses were offered first-purchase rights.

In this photo, a Millers Creek Railroad mixed train—a combination freight and passenger train—is pictured in Van Lear. What appears to be a 4-6-0 type steam locomotive, the railroad’s only passenger car, and a reefer (refrigerated car) can be seen. The reefer probably brought meat from a packing plant and other perishables for the company store. You can tell by the hatches in the roof of the car that it is a reefer. The hatches were for loading the blocks of ice used to keep the car cold.

WANTED — Paying cash for large diamonds; collections of vintage wrist and pocket watches; gold and silver coins; sterling flatware and serving pieces; gold and silver jewelry; collections of arts and crafts and pottery; antique advertising signs; antique walking canes; pocket knives; collections of antique guns and swords; military collections; early hand-crafted crocks and jugs; musical instruments. Call Clarence, buyer for more than 35 years; 606.531.0467. (F-D23) SELF-PUBLISHING: On-Demand Book Printing, Softcover, Hardcover, and Spiral Binding, Side-Sewing for Children’s Books, Kindle Books, Typesetting, Editing, Graphic Design, Amazon Listing, Bible-Rebinding, etc. Contact Reformation Publishers, Inc., DBA 24-Hour Books, DBA Williams Printing Co., 14 S. Queen Street, Mt. Sterling, KY 40353, Email: rpublisher@aol.com, 1.800.765.2464, Telephone 859.520.3757, Fax 859.520.3357, Text 606.359.2064, www.reformationpublishers.com. (O-D24)

The Baptist Seminary of Kentucky is located on the campus of Georgetown College in Georgetown.

past tense/present tense

by Bill Ellis

Teaching A

December 1974. Lowett and I served on panels at history ll of us have been influenced by great teachers, both in meetings over the next several years, and I visited him school and out. after he retired to Massachusetts.

I can still picture my father, William Walter Ellis, as my first great teacher. “I’ll show you once, and you’ll • • • always know how,” he said as he demonstrated welding, brazing, soldering, driving a 16-penny nail into a 2x10, What did I learn from teaching over the years? Most and other skills. students wanted to earn a good grade and move on with He had the knack of visualizing something to be built, their academic career. I may have learned more than they whether it was a wagon or a house. I really pity a person, did. particularly a male, whose father was not a hero to them.

At Harrodsburg High School, I learned to teach and He was always “Pop” to me. No kid ever had a better coach Black students and players. I had attended role model. segregated schools, so I had a lot to learn. After a I hope as a teacher I influenced students in a positive somewhat contentious football scrimmage at Irvine one hot way. I taught for one year at Harrodsburg High School August evening, a restaurant manager in Richmond refused (1962-1963) and three years at Shelby County High School to admit my Black players. I was furious. (Get it: 22-year(1963-1966). I then took a year to earn a master of arts old Coach Ellis was really mad because he had never degree in history at witnessed what had Eastern Kentucky been going on for University, taught at many years.) We Lees Junior College were finally admitted in Jackson from 1967without rancor to a 1970, and continued Jerry’s Restaurant. my career at EKU, I went back home teaching from 1970to teach and coach at 1999.

Shelby County High Coaching football School for three in the first four years years. I had a male of high school student who I knew teaching about killed woke up early to me. I enjoyed the work on a dairy competition and farm, so occasionally loved being around I let him take a brief Eastern Kentucky University—where Bill Ellis spent time as a student and as the players. But after nap in class. an instructor participating in a In both schools, high school history several male students went on to join the armed forces, teachers’ seminar at EKU in the summer of 1965, I began to several seeing service in Vietnam. I have tried to keep up believe that my future lay in teaching, not coaching. with them and other students over the years.

I had several great mentors, including Principal Roy Teaching college classes, particularly survey classes at a Camic and teacher Forest “Aggie” Sale at Harrodsburg, as large university, I saw students only two or three times a well as Principal Bruce Sweeney and my assistant coach week. It seemed that the really good students or those who Arnold Thurman at Shelby County High School. were making failing grades were those you saw most often.

After obtaining my master’s, I found a job at Lees Junior Some students wanted to stay as anonymous as possible, College as a replacement for an older teacher returning to just earning an average grade and moving on. That was the University of Kentucky. The job market was tight, and I OK, but I think we both missed something. was retained for another two years.

I first taught social science courses, then joined the I took summer classes and attended special readings EKU History Department and taught American history from professors at UK. Another great mentor came into my undergraduate survey courses, Kentucky history and oral life. Professor Richard Lowitt of the UK history faculty history. I also headed seminars. Department of History became my advisor. We hit it off. He was New York City Chair George Robinson was a great role model and born and bred and had never learned to drive a car, but he mentor. agreed to be my dissertation director.

I always tried to lead students into discussions. For I was a small-town Kentucky lad in uncharted waters.

American history survey classes in my final years of Lowett took an interest in my dissertation topic: the teaching, I used not only a standard textbook but also a biography of E.Y. Mullins, president of Southern Baptist book that explored questions such as, “Could the Colonists Theological Seminary. I received my Ph.D. in history in 58 K E NT U C K Y M O NTHLY NOV EMBER 2023

have survived without the American Indians?” Or, “Could the South have won the Civil War?” Or, “Was it really necessary to use the atomic bomb?”

Discussions usually were interesting as students explored the boundaries of their knowledge of a subject.

The most shocking incident in my career came a few days after the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. It was finally determined that the bombing was the work of domestic, not foreign, terrorists.

Several students said they were appalled by the incident. Then, a young man in the back of the room raised his hand.

“Sometimes, these things are necessary,” he said.

All of the other students immediately turned to look at him, and everyone was silent. The other students and I were shocked, but I immediately took up the day’s lessons. The young man who made the statement soon dropped the class.

I learned one thing as a teacher in a classroom situation: Identify the students who will have developed an opinion about what they have read, seek them out, and ask questions.

I was fortunate to have a Fulbright Grant to Massey University in New Zealand in the latter half of 1989. My wife, Charlotte, and I truly loved the experience. I volunteered to teach several classes to a 200-plus student world history course. Even with so many students, I tried successfully to seek out questions and comments. They liked my “accent,” and I liked theirs.

The finale in my EKU experience was interviewing dozens of the school’s former students and faculty. I turned those interviews and my own research into A History of Eastern Kentucky University: The School of Opportunity, published in 2005.

L O CAL

Holiday Boutique Shopping & Celebrating

& M AN Y M OR E!

Holiday Open House December 2

Craft Market December 2-3

Nortoncommons.com • 502.412.5085 • 10712 Meeting St. • Prospect, KY 40059

Let the fun begin in Grant County!

visitgrantky.com 800-382-7117

Readers may contact Bill Ellis at editor@ kentuckymonthly.com k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 59

field notes

by Gary Garth

The Mule Wrangler

M

y wife, Katy, and I recently fulfilled a longplanned-for goal of visiting Grand Canyon National Park, which is remarkable. More on that later.

I had scheduled an interview with a mule wrangler for the second day of our visit. I was directed to the park’s livery barn, which is where the mules used to haul gear and visitors to and from Phantom Ranch—a century-old outpost in the canyon basement on the Colorado River—are kept and cared for.

We arrived early. The man I was scheduled to meet, Mr. Berry, was not yet available. We were invited to wait. The barn, a large wooden building, was clean and well-kept but carried the distinctive scent of the critters it housed. “You’ll smell it before you see it,” a park employee cheerily told me when I asked for directions.

After a short wait, Sophia Nasato, a slim young woman dressed in cowboy work garb and sporting a wide-brimmed hat, led a string of mules through the open barn door.

She dismounted and asked if she could help us. Introductions were exchanged. I explained that I was waiting for a mule wrangler.

“I’m a mule wrangler,” she said.

National Park employees are unfailingly polite. Sophia began unloading one of her mules while chatting with us.

60 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY NOV EMBER 2023

“Where are you from?” she asked.

“Kentucky.”

She looked up from her work.

“Yeah? Where in Kentucky?”

Calloway County, we told her.

“I’m from Bowling Green.”

I must have sounded incredulous.

“Bowling Green, Kentucky?”

“Yeah,” she said, flashing a knowing smile.

I occasionally meet Kentuckians in my travels outside the Commonwealth but was surprised to meet a 26-year-old Western Kentucky University graduate wrangling mules at the Grand Canyon.

Nasato wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

While studying communications at WKU, she thought about working for a nonprofit but in 2020 began working for dude ranches.

“I worked at a few different places, and I just fell in love with Arizona,” she said.

She was introduced to packing at her first dude ranch job, which was in Montana. She was 21 and, like most 21-year-olds, saw few obstacles in her path that she could not overcome, a can-do attitude that soon proved useful.

“I found out what they did [packing], and I thought that was a really neat skill, and I was really interested in learning. But the people I worked for were a little old-fashioned,” she said, chuckling at the memory, “and thought [packing] was a man’s position.”

She quickly added that her former employers were neither prejudiced nor sexist but simply doubted women were strong enough to handle what can be physically demanding work.

“For a while, I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to do it,” she said.

“But just because they said that, it made me want to do it even more.”

Nasato joined Grand Canyon National Park concessioner Xanterra earlier this year as a packer and makes a couple of trips into the canyon each week along the Bright Angel Trail. It’s approximately 10 miles from the south rim to Phantom

Ranch. The well-maintained trail is the park’s most popular, but it is challenging by any measure, particularly the climb out. Bright Angel is an approximately 4½- or 5½-hour trip for a packed mule, depending on the direction. That’s 4½ hours down and 5½ hours up.

“These guys,” she said, patting the mule’s flank, “on the way up, they only carry about 50 pounds because uphill is so much harder. But on the way down they carry about 150 [pounds].”

It’s year-round work, and Nasato admitted that packing and leading mules into and out of the mile-deep canyon on a trail that, in places, is narrow and steep, and, depending on the time of year and weather conditions, sufferingly hot, wet and/or icy, is physically taxing and can be a little intimidating.

She loves it.

“I really would like to keep doing this for a while,” Nasato concluded. “I love learning new things.”

PENNED S U B M I T AT K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY. C O M

...

The Grand Canyon itself is stunning in ways that are easy to understand but difficult to explain.

Photos don’t do it justice. They can effectively capture the canyon’s silence and stillness but not the size and grandeur. My work has enabled me to visit some magnificent places.

As marvelous as many of those places are, not all live up to the hype. The Grand Canyon does. Go if you can.

It’s worth the trip. Look for details at nps.gov/grca.

Readers may contact Gary Garth at editor@kentuckymonthly.com

kentucky monthly’s annual writers’ showcase

We are seeking submissions for the literary section in our February 2024 issue.

Categories: POETRY FICTION CREATIVE NONFICTION OPENING PARAGRAPH FOR NOVEL SUBMISSION DEADLINE:

December 8, 2023

k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 61

calendar

NOVEMBER 2023 From the Sheltowee Art Fair in Somerset

SUNDAY

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

<<<

Bowling Green, through Mar. 7, 270.745.2592

Art Museum, Louisville, through Jan. 7, 502.634.2700

5

6

STOMP, Norton Center for the Arts, Danville, 859.236.4692

12

Sensory Friendly Sunday,

Paramount Arts Center, Ashland, 606.324.0007

downtown, Madisonville, through Nov. 4, 270.821.3435

9

10

11

Old State Capitol, Frankfort, 502.564.1792

in the Park, Murray, through Nov. 12, 270.759.1752

Appalachian Wireless Arena, Pikeville, 606.444.5500

15

16

17

18

Kentucky Derby Museum, Louisville, 502.637.1111

Lexington Opera House, through Nov. 20, 859.233.4567

Playhouse, Berea, through Nov. 19, 859.756.0011

Center for Rural Development, Somerset, through Nov. 19, 606.219.0759

24

25

Lexington Children’s Theatre, Lexington, 859.254.4546

20

Jingle & Mingle, Frosty: A downtown Musical Dawson Springs, Adventure, 270.797.4248

Boyle County Performing Arts Center, Danville, 859.439.5143

26

27

Presbyterian Church, Lexington, 859.317.3353

21

Joan Osborne in Concert,

Veterans Distillery Spotlight,

28

Irving Berlin’s White Christmas,

23 Thanksgiving

Grand Theatre, Frankfort, 502.875.8687 (see page 64)

Cirque Musica Holiday Wonderland,

Holiday Open House,

Puffs, Playhouse

Elf the Musical Jr., Spotlight

Jack Harlow: No Place Like Home Tour, Owensboro Sports Center, 270.687.8330

30

The Louisville Palace, 502.883.5774

Ongoing PRHBTN 12, Loudoun House, Lexington, through Dec. 1, 859.254.7024

<<<

Lexington Chamber Chorale’s Sing Noel, Second

14

Rupp Arena, Lexington, 859.233.4567

Louisville Zoo, 502.459.2181

19

Candlelight Holiday Event,

Eagles – The Long Goodbye,

a guide to Kentucky’s most interesting events For a more extensive listing of events, visit kentuckymonthly.com.

62 K E NT U C K Y M O NTHLY NOV EMBER 2023

SATURDAY

3

Matthew West: My Story Your Glory Tour,

The Reluctant Dragon,

13

FRIDAY

2

Ongoing Stories Retold: American Art from Princeton Kentucky Museum, University, Speed Ongoing Bowling Green: Our Town Exhibit,

THURSDAY

4

Exile – 60th Anniversary Concert, Renfro Valley Entertainment Center, 606.256.0101

Peppa Pig Live,

Sheltowee Art Fair,

Small Business Saturday, Mellwood Arts Center, Louisville, 502.895.3650

Ongoing The Kentucky Sugar Chest, Speed Art Museum, Louisville, through April 7, 502.634.2700

e sin Mt. Sterling mmaokrie

me

this Christmas Season

MT. S TERLING MERCHANTS

CHRISTMAS OPEN HOUSE NOV 10 • 10AM−6PM

NOV 11 • 10AM−4PM

Festive local shopping, dining and door prizes at participating businesses throughout Mt. Sterling!

NOV 25 Downtown Sip,

Shop and Stroll

DEC 1 Main Street Park

Christmas Tree Lighting & Downtown Market DEC 1 Christmas in the Park DEC 2 Polar Express

at the Arts Center DEC 2 Downtown

Christmas Parade

I - 64 E X IT 1 1 0

|

DEC 3 The 36th Annual

Advent Musicale

DEC 9 Harry Potter Yule Ball

at the Arts Center

DEC 1-16 Winter Illuminations:

Mt. Sterling Holiday Lights DEC 15-17 A Christmas Carol at the Arts Center

W W W. MTST E R L I N GT O U R I S M . C O M

k e n t u c k y m o n t h l y. c o m 63

vested interest

Hymn of the Nineties What if God was one of us Just a slob like one of us Just a stranger on the bus Trying to make His way home

I

n the mid-1990s, many of us sang along with Anchorage native Joan Osborne’s Grammy Award-nominated “One of Us.” It was a profoundly spiritual yet non-religious lesson that, if God is everywhere, he can be seen in anyone—a stranger on a bus, a carnival barker at an amusement park, a college freshman walking across a university quad.

Osborne, a Waggener High graduate from Anchorage, and I were classmates at the University of Louisville who never met. “I was there for a year and directed a play,” said Osborne, who transferred to New York University as a sophomore with plans of going into theater. “When the chance to go into music showed up [a weekly gig at Abilene’s Café in the East Village alongside such groups as Blues Traveler and the Spin Doctors], I took it. I figured college would always be there, but the opportunity to sing may not.”

For Osborne, Abilene’s was a return to her musical roots. Her parents met in the choir at St. Edward Catholic Church in Jeffersontown. “That’s an appropriate place for my story to begin, right?” said Joan, the oldest girl of her parents’ six children. “Anchorage was a great place to grow up. Our doors were never locked, and we could come and go as we pleased.”

STEPHEN M. VEST At Anchorage Public School, she met Publisher + Editor-in-Chief Carolyn Siler Browning, a former assistant city editor at The Louisville Times, who taught music for more than 30 years. Browning died in 2020.

Kwiz Answers: 1. B. Zachary Taylor, the 12th president of the United States, grew up in Louisville. During the Mexican American War, he successfully defeated Mexican forces in Texas, driving out all Mexican military opposition from north of the Rio Grande; 2. C. The last chemical weapon stored there was destroyed in July 2023. The facility is still a site for the storage of conventional munitions in the U.S. arsenal.; 3. A. The 101st Airborne Division, known as the “Screaming Eagles,” is the only air assault division in the U.S. Army. This division has played a significant role in numerous conflicts, from World War II to Afghanistan; 4. B. Albert Sidney Johnston, born in 1803 in Washington (near Maysville), served as a general in the Texas Army, U.S. Army and Confederate Army. He died at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee on April 6, 1862, becoming the highest-ranking officer killed on either side during the Civil War; 5. A. Coal miners in Kentucky played a crucial role in supporting the U.S. war effort during World War II, providing 72.4 million tons of coal to power the country’s industries and military operations; 6. B. The State Partnership Programs (SPPs) promote military-to-military engagements in support of defense 64 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY NOV EMBER 2023

“I wasn’t an athlete nor all that popular, but Carolyn Browning saw something in me and challenged her students with the five- and six-part harmonies,” Osborne said. “I remember when she took us to sing at a Christmas program at Colonial Williamsburg, and I was given solos.

She was so generous in singling me out. It gave me the confidence that I knew how to sing.” At home in Anchorage, there weren’t dangers lurking around every corner: “You had the ability to figure out things for yourself.”

That skillset and confidence came in handy living in Boerum Hill in Brooklyn, New York. “With my daughter, I needed to know where she was every minute,” Osborne said. “Like most people in my generation, my parents seldom knew where I was.”

Throughout her 35-year career, Osborne has shared the stage with artists ranging from Stevie Wonder and Mavis Staples to Bob Dylan and Lucinda Williams, singing any genre. She’s performed at the Kennedy Center and the Grand Old Opry.

Osborne’s new album, Nobody Owns You (Womanly Hip Records), is introspective and provides much of the playlist for her Kentucky Monthly-sponsored concert Nov. 21 at Frankfort’s Grand Theatre. “It’s inspired by the things happening in my personal life—my daughter going off to college, my mom’s health,” Osborne said.

Osborne expects a large family turnout, including her sister, Rebecca (“Bex”) whose combo Griffytown will open the Nov. 21 show. Named for an unincorporated village on Harrods Creek near Middletown, Griffytown features Bex and Katy Quinn. Their music often highlights Louisville, as in their most recent ballad, “Cave Hill.”

“My siblings are still in Louisville, and I have cousins in Lexington, so I look forward to coming home whenever I can,” Osborne said.

security goals; 7. C. Born in Harlan in 1895, Creech promoted aviation development in Kentucky and served in the Kentucky House of Representatives after the war. He died in 1948; 8. A. Brashear, from Tonieville (near Elizabethtown), was the subject of the 2000 movie Men of Honor; 9. C. Franklin Runyon Sousley, from Hilltop in Fleming County, was one of six Marines photographed raising the American flag over Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima on Feb. 23, 1945; 10. B. While several names have surfaced as the inspiration for Rosie the Riveter, most credit Rose Will Monroe from Science Hill in Pulaski County as the iconic model for millions of women employed in defense industries during World War II; 11. A. Charles Young was born into slavery in Mays Lick, near Maysville, in 1864. In 1917, he became the first African American to achieve the rank of colonel in the U.S. Army.

At the request of Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, the Department of Defense posthumously promoted Young to brigadier general in February 2022; 12. C. John Hunt Morgan of Lexington led a 1,000-mile raid into Indiana and Ohio in July 1863. He was forced to surrender in Salineville, Ohio.

Nov. 24–Dec. 30, 2023

Tuesday–Saturday For only the cost of parking

ArkEncounter.com/christmas

CreationMuseum.org/christmas