Chautauqua Characters

Twenty-three great historical dramas for 2009-10  

• Thanks to our underwriters and supporters, KHC will again offer reduced-cost Chautauqua performances in 2009-10.
• Through support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, reduced-cost Chautauqua performances will be available to Kentucky schools. Please see below for details. 
• A nonprofit sponsor is limited to one reduced-cost Kentucky Chautauqua program during the year. No exceptions. The reduced cost is $175.00.
• Chautauqua is intended for audiences of 40 or more. Please do not schedule for smaller groups.
• A sponsor who desires additional Chautauqua performances can purchase them at full cost—$450 per program. You may charge admission to performances your group has purchased at full price.
• All Kentucky Chautauqua performances must be scheduled through the application process using the forms in the catalog or online.
• Please remember to contact the performer and confirm arrangements for reduced-cost or full-cost programs before submitting an application. If you don’t, your program will not take place as you planned.
• For questions or problems about Kentucky Chautauqua programs, please contact Cathy Ferguson, Speakers Bureau/Chautauqua Coordinator, at 859/257-5932 or catherine.ferguson@uky.edu

Chautauqua Characters

CPT Robert K. Rambo, (Ret.) 50 Sterling Drive #206 Cullowhee, NC 28723 Home Phone: (276) 608-6152 Email: robertkrambo@yahoo.com	Atta kul kulla Cherokee Peace Chief c. 1715—1780 Atta kul kulla was the Peace Chief of the powerful Cherokee Nation from 1758 until his death around 1780. Called the “most important Indian of his day,” Atta kul kulla learned English ways (and met King George II) during a visit to London while still a teenager. He developed into a skilled and sophisticated diplomat whose ability to build alliances and treaties caused the English to dub him The Little Carpenter. Many of his policies and actions are still controversial, but he did manage to unite his people, a difficult political feat that laid the foundation for the long-term survival of the Cherokee Nation on a continent that was rapidly filling up with European immigrants. Atta kul kulla played a key role in the famous land transaction known as the Transylvania Purchase. He negotiated the sale of what is now western and central Kentucky and north central Tennessee to the Transylvania Company headed by Judge Richard Henderson of North Carolina. The legislatures of North Carolina and Virginia annulled the deal, but Henderson came away with 400,000 acres as compensation.
Kelly O'Connell Brengelman PO Box 4254 Midway, KY 40348 Work Phone: (859) 806-6592 (cell) Home Phone: (859) 846-9177 Email: kellybrengelman@windstream.net	Lucy Bakewell Audubon A Kentucky Love Story 1787—1874 It was not easy being the wife of John James Audubon. Yet, Lucy Bakewell Audubon was, in her own words, "perfectly suited for him." She was incredibly devoted to her husband, the famed naturalist, artist and author of Birds of America. She made enormous sacrifices and suffered public scorn as she supported her husband's talents. In the end, however, the Audubons were successful. The two spent many years in Kentucky—in Louisville and later Henderson—as John dabbled in the merchandising business. Though his business ventures failed and his family lost everything in the economic depression of 1819, he devoted more and more time to his talent, spending hours in the woods while Lucy became the breadwinner for their family. She remained steadfast as his confidant and the love of his life, continually defending her husband's talents as an artist and ornithologist. Without her emotional and financial support, Audubon's now famous book might never have been published. Lucy's story is one of love, lies, disappointment, and internal struggle over her everchanging role in her family, abandonment, sacrifice and, finally, redemption. This is perhaps one of the best, and somewhat unknown, Kentucky love stories. In his words, "With her, was I not always rich?"
Scott New 54 Crawford St #2 Berea, KY 40403 Home Phone: (859) 986-7309 Email: sbnew@windstream.net	Daniel Boone Pathfinder 1784-1820 Daniel Boone was a legend even before his death, but much of what Americans think they know about him is off the mark. Neither a backwoods bumpkin nor an epic slayer of Indians, Boone was an intrepid explorer and natural leader whose actual exploits amply justify his larger-than-life reputation. He played a crucial role in the exploration and settlement of Kentucky and the American west. Scott New has prepared two Boone programs. Please tell him which you prefer when booking. Coming into Kentucky: Boone first seriously explored Kentucky in 1769 as a market hunter. In 1775, he led the expedition that founded Boonesborough in Madison County. This is the exciting story of those early days of Kentucky settlement. The Siege of Boonesboro: In 1778, the Shawnees captured Boone and almost 30 of his men while making salt at the Blue Licks. He escaped and led the defense of Fort Boonesborough against a Shawnee and British siege, but afterward was accused of collaborating with the enemy. Boone’s testimony to new Kentucky settlers tells the dramatic story of a key episode of the American Revolution in Kentucky.
Mel Hankla 106 Bunny Trail Jamestown, KY 42629 Work Phone: (270) 566-3370 (cell) Home Phone: (270) 343-3081 Email: melhankla@kentuckylongrifles.com Website: http://americanhistoricservices.com	George Rogers Clark Revolutionary War Hero 1752-1818 George Rogers Clark, a tall, talented Virginian, came to Kentucky as a surveyor, but it was as a military leader during the Revolutionary War that he made his mark. In 1777 Clark won approval from Virginia governor Patrick Henry (Kentucky was then a Virginia county) for a secret mission to attack British posts north of the Ohio River. Clark’s party—175 soldiers and a small band of settlers—set up camp on Corn Island near the falls of the Ohio River in May 1778. The next month Clark launched a brilliant campaign into present-day Illinois and Indiana, defeating the British and their Indian allies and securing the Northwest Territory for the young United States. Meanwhile, the settlers Clark had brought along moved from Corn Island to the Kentucky shore, founding the city of Louisville in late 1778. His war exploits marked the peak of Clark’s career. Plagued by debts, drinking and poor health, he spent his later years living in Louisville. Overshadowed by his brother William, of Lewis and Clark fame, he never got the credit he thought he had earned. For a short preview of Hankla's presentations visit his website at www.kentuckylongrifles.com.
Haley Bowlng McCoy 201 Shannon Ct. Lexington, KY 40511 Home Phone: (606) 627-1842 Email: haleysmccoy@gmail.com	Anna Mac Clarke Military Pioneer 1919—1944 Anna Mac Clarke didn't put up with second-class treatment from anybody, including the U.S. Army. A native of Lawrenceburg, Clarke graduated from Kentucky State College in 1941. Rejecting domestic work—the only job a black college graduate could get in Lawrenceburg in those days—she left Kentucky to work at a Girl Scout Camp in New York state. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Clarke volunteered for the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (renamed Women's Army Corps in 1943). During officer's training in Iowa, she led the successful opposition to a proposal to segregate black soldiers into their own regiment. At Douglas Army Airfield in Arizona, Lieutenant Clarke made history when she became the first black WAC officer to command a white unit. And she made national news after her protest against segregated seating in the base theater convinced the commanding officer to ban segregation on the base. Just a few weeks later, Clarke died of complications from a ruptured appendix. She was 24.
George McGee Georgetown College Box 198 Georgetown, KY 40324 Work Phone: (502) 863-8162 Email: george_mcgee@georgetowncollege.edu Website: http://georgetowncollege.edu	Henry Clay Kentucky's Great Statesman 1777—1852 Above all, Henry Clay wanted to be president of the United States. Despite never quite making it—he ran and lost three times between 1824 and 1844—Clay played a large role in the history of his country, which he served as a Senator, as Speaker of the House, and as Secretary of State. Born and educated in Virginia, Clay moved to Kentucky and set up a law practice in Lexington in 1797. Elected to the state legislature in 1803, he took a seat in the U.S. Senate in 1810. For more than forty years he was a major player on the national political scene, renowned for his oratory and devotion to the Union. Slavery posed a great political and personal quandary for Clay. A slaveholder himself, he advocated gradual emancipation and colonization in Africa. He opposed extension of slavery into the new western states, but argued Congress had no right to interfere with slavery where it already existed. Attacking abolitionists in 1839, he said he would "rather be right than president." The speech cost him the 1840 Whig presidential nomination.
Bet Stewart 1427 Thompson Heights Avenue Cincinnati, OH 45223 Home Phone: (513) 542-2231 Email: bet@intuitiontheatre.com	Rosemary Clooney Sentimental Journey 1928—2002 What makes Rosemary Clooney's life so fascinating, so charmed and charged with intrigue and great challenge? First and foremost, it is the sheer power of her talent, her girl-next-door appeal, her love of music, art and drama, and her love for her home state of Kentucky. But behind this small-town-girl-rises-to-fame story is also one of extraordinary perseverance and dedication, one that teaches that it is possible to overcome the worst to become the best. Rosemary was born in Maysville in 1928 and became an internationally known singer of pop, big band and jazz music. She recorded with big-name labels and some of the greatest musicians of her time—Bing Crosby, Gene Autry, Nelson Riddle and Frank Sinatra. However, through her rise to fame she encountered many obstacles—having a constantly traveling mother and alcoholic father, raising five children through the turmoil of a failed marriage, witnessing the assassination of friend and presidential candidate Bobby Kennedy, and eventually suffering from drug-induced psychosis. Yet, she always rebounded with resilience, just as her mother told her she would. "You're the oldest, Rosie. You'll manage," her mother would say. Before her death in 2002, Clooney resurrected her career, married the love of her life and continued to keep her family and her love of Kentucky as her top priorities.
Erma J. Bush Scheduling contact: Juanita White 10203 Cambrie Court Louisville, KY 40241 Work Phone: (502) 327-7885	Margaret Garner Death before Slavery c. 1833—1858 Margaret Garner was a Kentucky slave who ran away and got caught—a common story. We remember Garner because she was the runaway who killed one of her own children rather than see the child returned to slavery. The story began in January 1856 when seventeen northern Kentucky slaves made a mass escape across the frozen Ohio River to Cincinnati, where they took refuge in the house of Elijah Kite, a former slave who had once been their neighbor. Before Garner and her family—husband Robert and four children—could leave to head farther north, the slave owners and several deputies surrounded the Kite house. After a gun battle, the slaves were subdued, but not before Margaret had cut her daughter Mary’s throat and tried to kill her other children. She later said she wanted to end their suffering rather than have them “taken back to slavery and be murdered by piece meal.” The case drew national attention. Instead of being tried in Ohio, Garner was sent to a Covington jail and later sold down the river. She died in Mississippi.
Ethan Sullivan Smith 209 South Miller Street Cynthiana, KY 41031 Work Phone: (859) 537-9558 (cell) Home Phone: (859) 235-0225 Email: esmith6@georgetowncollege.edu	Johnny Green An Orphan's Survival 1841—1920 Johnny Green was 19 when the Civil War broke out, and was one of the only soldiers in the Orphan Brigade alive when it ended. Orphan Brigade soldiers were unable to return to their home state of Kentucky until the war was over—lest they be tried for treason—because they chose to fight for the Confederacy. Though he had learned to love the Union, as his mother was from Boston, Green felt passionately that states should have the right to govern themselves. And when President Abraham Lincoln called for men and arms, Green left his job in Florence, Ala., to travel to Bowling Green, Ky., to join the Confederacy on the day before his 20th birthday. Green's story, as detailed in a journal he wrote for his daughters years later, provides extraordinary accounts of courage and bravery, and brings the story of the Orphan Brigade to life.
Edward B. Smith 209 South Miller Street Cynthiana, KY 41031 Work Phone: (859) 492-9163 (cell) Home Phone: (859) 235-0225 Email: ed_smith@georgetowncollege.edu	Justice John Marshall Harlan The Great Dissenter 1833—1911 During his 33-year tenure on the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice John Marshall Harlan dissented in some of the court's most important civil rights cases, earning him the title of "The Great Dissenter." In one of the most famous dissents in U.S. Supreme Court history, Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld the constitutionality of segregation, Harlan wrote: "Our constitution is color-blind, and neither knows or tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law." His words were an inspiration during the Civil Rights Movement to Thurgood Marshall, NAACP chief counsel who would later be appointed to the Supreme Court. Marshall cited the dissent as he argued to end segregation in the 1954 case Brown v. Board of Education. Though Harlan was born in Boyle County to a prominenty slaveholding family, and was once a slaveholder himself, he fought for the Union during the Civil War after graduating from Centre College and earning his law degree at Transylvania. As he became involved in Kentucky politics—being elected as county judge of Franklin County and Kentucky attorney general, and running two unsuccessful campaigns for governor in the early 19702—his political leanings shifted, and he became a major force in the Republican Party. He was often chastised for contradicting himself politically, being once a slaveholder and later one of slavery's biggest opponents. But Harlan always maintained that the law afforded him the right to change his mind—and his support for equal rights after the Civil War never waned.
Robert Brock 370 Colonial Heights Road Glasgow, KY 42141 Work Phone: (270) 590-4806 (cell) Home Phone: (270) 678-9054 Email: hctrobert@hotmail.com	Billy Herndon One Man's Lincoln 1818—1891 Friends and law partners for 18 years, Billy Herndon felt he knew Abraham Lincoln better than Abraham Lincoln knew himself. That's why he was confident his biography of Lincoln would tell a story that was honest and true to Lincoln's character. In 1861, as he was leaving to be inaugurated president, Lincoln told Herndon to keep his name on the shingle outside their office because he intended to return someday. But he would not. After Lincoln's assassination, Herndon dedicated his life to collecting materials for a definitive biography of the 16th president. When it was published 24 years later, Herndon's critics labeled him as an angry, contemptuous alcoholic who painted a negative portrait of Lincoln and his wife, Mary Todd. In Herndon's eyes, however, he presented Lincoln unvarnished, a great man in all his humanitie, neither saint nor villain. Is Herndon's story the true story of Abraham Lincoln? You be the judge.
Betsy B. Smith 209 South Miller Street Cynthiana, KY 41031 Work Phone: (859) 588-4019 (cell) Home Phone: (859) 235-0225 Email: edwardbetsy@bellsouth.net	Emilie Todd Helm Rebel in the White House 1836—1930 As the sister of Mary Todd Lincoln and the wife of Confederate General Benjamin Hardin Helm, Emilie Todd Helm had a front row view of history during and after the Civil War. She and her husband knew the Lincolns very well. Benjamin Helm turned down a personal offer from Lincoln to become paymaster of the Union Army with the rank of major, choosing instead to join the Confederacy and become the president’s “rebel brother-in-law.” After Helm was killed at Chickamauga, President and Mrs. Lincoln invited Emilie to come to the White House. As a southern loyalist and widow of the commander of the famous Orphan Brigade, her presence in the While House aroused protests. Lincoln defended his right to have anyone he chose as his guest, but Helm soon departed for Kentucky, where she lived out her long life. She weathered the ordeals of the war and reconstruction and landed in Elizabethtown, where three consecutive presidents appointed her postmistress. Helm attended many Confederate reunions, where she was hailed as the Mother of the Orphan Brigade.
Ethan Sullivan Smith 209 South Miller Street Cynthiana, KY 41031 Work Phone: (859) 537-9558 (cell) Home Phone: (859) 235-0225 Email: ethansmith209@bellsouth.net	Price Hollowell Black Patch War Hero 1895—1975 When the Night Riders attacked the Hollowell farm in Caldwell County on the night of May 2, 1907, one of them boasted, "We Night Riders fear no judge or jury!" Young Price Hollowell, who saw everything they did, made them eat those words in one of the most remarkable episodes of the Black Patch War, a western Kentucky conflict that featured mayhem and murder not seen in those parts since the Civil War. Low tobacco prices caused the Black Patch War, named after the dark leaf grown in west Kentucky and Tennessee. The American Tobacco Company was paying less for dark tobacco than it cost farmers to grow it. The farmers fought back by form-ing the Planters' Protective Association, whose members withheld their tobacco from the market. When this strategy did not produce higher prices, some members—the Night Riders—resorted to violence against farmers, like the Hollowells, who refused to honor the boycott. The Night Riders ran the Hollowells out of the state, but they returned, filed a federal lawsuit, and, thanks in large part to Price's testimony, won damages of $35,000.
David Hurt 125 Cherry Road Berea, KY 40403 Home Phone: (859) 986-5304 Email: elkhorndave@hotmail.com	Grandpa Jones Country Musician and Comic 1913—1998 Louis Marshall Jones, better known as Grandpa, was the son of Henderson County sharecroppers. Hard times drove the family north to Akron, Ohio in the late 1920s. Jones, who had a repertoire of songs learned from his parents and the radio, won a talent contest that led to regular work on an Akron radio station. That launched a career that lasted more than sixty years. It was during tours with country music star (and fellow Kentuckian) Bradley Kincaid in the 1930s that Jones developed the Grandpa persona he used the rest of his life. Jones wrote many of his most popular songs. Like many old-time musicians, he struggled during the rock-and-roll craze of the '50s—he toured Canada and tried his hand at early television. Beginning in 1969, television brought Jones fame as a member of the original cast of Hee Haw, which showcased his skills as a vaudeville comic. Grandpa Jones was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1978. He never retired, suffering a fatal stroke after a performance at the Grand Ole Opry in 1998.
Mel Hankla 106 Bunny Trail Jamestown, KY 42629 Work Phone: (270) 566-3370 (cell) Home Phone: (270) 343-3081 Email: melhankla@kentuckylongrifles.com Website: http://americanhistoricservices.com	Simon Kenton Frontiersman 1755—1836 Thinking he had killed another boy in a fight over a girl, Simon Kenton fled west from Virginia at age 16. He was wrong—he had only knocked his rival unconscious—but the incident launched him on a life of high adventure. By the time he was 20, Kenton had fetched up on the Kentucky shore of the Ohio River in what is now Mason County. From there, he proceeded to carve out a remarkable career as an explorer and frontiersman. A compatriot of Daniel Boone and George Rogers Clark, Kenton was a legendary Indian fighter, and became Kentucky’s self-appointed welcomer-in-chief. From his post in Mason County, he personally greeted early settlers as they arrived in what was then the far west. Kenton married twice and had 10 children. He became a wealthy man, but lost his hand. Unable to read or write, he spent his final years in poverty in Ohio. For a short preview of Hankla's presentations visit his website at www.kentuckylongrifles.com.
Sandy Harmon 843 Watson Lane Henderson, KY 42420 Home Phone: (270) 827-2983	Lily May Ledford Coon Creek Girl 1917—1985 When Lily May Ledford was a young girl growing up in a musical family in eastern Kentucky's Red River Gorge, she wanted a fiddle so badly that she traded her most precious possession—a box of crayons—for a broken-down instrument that didn't have strings, tuning pegs or a bow. She eventually became better known for banjo picking than fiddling, but that old fiddle helped launch a career that brought Lilly May and her Kentucky mountain music to a national audience. In 1936, Ledford went to Chicago to perform on WLS Radio's National Barn Dance. The next year her manager, John Lair, assembled a string band featuring Ledford's distinctive banjo style. Called the Coon Creek Girls, it was the first all-female string band. In 1939, the group began an eighteen-year run on the Renfro Valley Barn Dance radio show. That same year they played at the White House for President and Mrs. Roosevelt and their guests, the King and Queen of England. The king tapped his toe in spite of himself. The Coon Creek Girls disbanded in 1957.
Jim Sayre 1495 Alton Station Road Lawrenceburg, KY 40342 Home Phone: (502) 839-7191 Email: lincolna@dcr.net	Abraham Lincoln "I, too, am a Kentuckian." 1809—1865 Born on a farm in what is now Larue County, Kentucky, Abraham Lincoln spent his early years in the Commonwealth. His family moved to Indiana when he was seven, partly because of his father’s opposition to slavery, and never returned. But as his native brilliance and burning political ambition carried him to the presidency and greatness—a panel of historians recently chose him as the most influential American who ever lived—Lincoln always had connections with his native state. In his law office in Springfield, Illinois, he had a law partner from Green County, Kentucky—William Herndon, who later wrote a biography of Lincoln. His best friend in Springfield was Joshua Speed, a son of Louisville’s prominent Speed family, and in Springfield he found a wife from Kentucky—Mary Todd, the daughter of a well-known Lexington family. Lincoln visited Kentucky to see the Speeds and his in-laws, and took the great Kentucky statesman Henry Clay as his political hero. During the Civil War Lincoln was very unpopular in Kentucky, but when he said, “I too am a Kentuckian,” no one could dispute it.
David Hurt 125 Cherry Road Berea, KY 40403 Home Phone: (859) 986-5304 Email: elkhorndave@hotmail.com	John C. C. Mayo Coal Baron 1864—1914 Controversy still swirls around the life and legacy of John Caldwell Calhoun Mayo, but there’s no debate about one thing: for better or worse, his work in the coal fields transformed eastern Kentucky, with consequences that are still felt today. John C. C. Mayo was born on a mountain farm in Pike County, but it was not until he was in college in the 1880s that he learned just how vast eastern Kentucky's mineral resources are. He started teaching, but soon turned to buying mineral rights from landowners, ultimately purchasing options on the coal that lay under hundreds of thousands of acres. Mayp amassed a vast fortune by selling these mineral rights to large out-of-state corporations. His influence in business and politics reached far beyond Kentucky's borders. When he died at age 49, he was the richest man in Kentucky. At his funeral, Mayo was eulogized as a visionary, but almost ninety years later his legacy is shadowed by long-standing controversy over the broad form deed and other practices of the coal industry he helped create.
L. Henry Dowell 329 Biloxi Drive Nicholasville, KY 40356 Home Phone: (859) 553-2059 Email: lhenryd@yahoo.com	Dr. Ephraim McDowell Frontier Surgeon 1771—1830 On Christmas Day 1809, a thousand miles away from the nearest hospital and thirty-five years before the discovery of anesthesia, Dr. Ephraim McDowell removed a 22-pound ovarian tumor from the abdomen of a 46-year-old woman. It was the world’s first ovariotomy, and it eventually brought McDowell worldwide acclaim as the Father of Abdominal Surgery. The patient, Jane Todd Crawford, had ridden three days on horseback to reach McDowell’s home in Danville, Kentucky, to have the operation. The medical authorities of the day were convinced that opening the abdomen meant certain death, so McDowell was far from sure that the surgery would succeed. He told Crawford he would proceed only if she “thought herself prepared to die.” She said she was ready, but they needn’t have worried. She came through with flying colors and in less than a month was on the way home to Green County. She lived another 32 years. Dr. McDowell’s boldness had saved Crawford’s life, and paved the way for surgeries that have since saved untold numbers of lives.
Barbara Flair 111 Maple Avenue Greensburg, KY 42743 Home Phone: (270) 405-1066 Email: barbara.flair@green.kyschools.us	Mary Owens Lincoln's First Mary 1808-1877 Abraham Lincoln married Mary Todd of Lexington, but before meeting her he was seriously interested in another Mary: Mary Owens of Green County, Kentucky. Owens was the well educated daughter of an estate owner who also ran an academy. In 1833, restless in rural Kentucky, Mary visited her sister in New Salem, Illinois. She soon met the town’s new postmaster, a tall fellow named Abraham Lincoln. Sparks flew during Mary’s month-long visit. Lincoln told her sister he would ask for Mary’s hand when she returned to Illinois. But when she reappeared three years later, much had changed. Lincoln, now a state legislator, was obsessed with politics, and Mary found his lack of social polish increasingly hard to tolerate. The romance withered. Although Lincoln did propose, it was clear when Mary left for Kentucky that the relationship was over. Afterward, they told different stories. Lincoln said Mary had become “corpulent and toothless.” Mary said Lincoln was not suitable for a lady of her refinement. Owens married Jessie Vineyard. They had five children and a very successful hemp plantation in Missouri.
Dick Usher 194 Capp Springs Road Benton, KY 42025 Home Phone: (270) 354-8058 Email: ushmd01@yahoo.com	Pee Wee Reese Hall of Famer 1918—1991 Harold Henry Reese got his famous nickname Pee Wee from a marble he used when he was a boy. The name fit because he did turn out to be a man of modest stature, but by every measure you could apply to an athlete—teamwork, leadership, determination, winning, grace under pressure—Pee Wee Reese was a giant. Born in Meade County, Kentucky, Reese grew up in Louisville. At 19, he quit his job at the telephone company to play professional baseball for the Louisville Colonels. By 1940, he had reached the big leagues, playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers at storied Ebbets Field. As captain, shortstop and lead-off man, he led the Dodgers to seven pennants and, in 1955, a World Series win over the New York Yankees. Inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY in 1984, his plaque there also records the powerful example he set when Jackie Robinson joined the Dodgers in 1947 as the major leagues’ first black player. Reese’s acceptance and support of Robinson were instrumental in breaking down baseball’s color barrier.
Edward B. Smith 209 South Miller Street Cynthiana, KY 41031 Work Phone: (502) 863-8042 or (859) 492-9163 (c Home Phone: (859) 235-0225 Email: edward_smith@georgetowncollege.edu	Adolph Rupp The Coach 1901—1977 During the 42 years he coached the University of Kentucky basketball team, Adolph Rupp raised the game to near-religious status in the Commonwealth. Basketball took its place next to horses, coal, and bourbon as Kentucky cultural icons. Rupp's teams won 880 games, four national championships, and one Olympic gold medal. There was a flip side to all this success—the team was suspended for the 1952-53 season after a point-shaving scandal, and Rupp was heavily criticized for taking too long to integrate the Kentucky basketball program. Adolph Rupp grew up in Kansas, the son of immigrant farmers. He played three years of varsity basketball at the University of Kansas, but never scored a point. He began his coaching career in Kansas, but soon moved on to high schools in Iowa and Illinois. The University of Kentucky hired him in 1930. Rupp's genius for public relations and his team's winning ways combined to make Kentucky basketball a statewide phenomenon, a point of pride around which Kentuckians of all stripes still rally.
Erma J. Bush Scheduling contact: Juanita White 10203 Cambrie Court Louisville, KY 40241 Home Phone: (502) 327-7885	Miss Dinnie Thompson No Ordinary Woman 1857—1939 In a way, Miss Dinnie Thompson was ordinary, a workaday person who was never rich or famous. But, as a representative of all those black Kentucky women who worked to make a living in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries despite prejudice and hardship, she is anything but ordinary. Dinnie was born a slave in the household of a member of Louisville's renowned Speed family. Her mother was a freedom-loving woman who hid Dinnie away on several attempts to escape across the Ohio River. They were caught every time. After emancipation in 1865, Miss Dinnie worked for almost thirty years as a laundress. Then, for twenty-six years, she was a maid at Louisville's Neighborhood House, which helped European immigrants adapt to American life. There she became friends with a young social worker named Elizabeth Wilson. Through their friendship, Miss Dinnie Thompson's extraordinary story has been preserved as a testimony to the memory of thousands of "ordinary" women like her.
Danny W. Hinton P.O. Box 171 Livingston, KY 40445 Home Phone: (606) 453-4045 Email: danddchinton@wmconnect.com	Dr. Thomas Walker Pioneer Physician 1715—1794 Dr. Thomas Walker didn’t come to Kentucky for his health. A politically well-connected physician, Walker was also a land speculator, and that’s why he led the first organized English foray into Kentucky in April, 1750. He and his five companions hoped to discover farmland ripe for settlement. They returned home to Virginia three months later, much disappointed. Never quite making it out of eastern Kentucky into the gentle terrain of central Kentucky, they had found only forested mountains teeming with game, not farmland. Walker considered his Kentucky exploration a failure, but it paved the way for Daniel Boone nineteen years later, and countless others after that. Walker himself returned to Kentucky several times, most notably in 1779–80 as head of the surveying party that extended the Virginia-North Carolina line—the southern border of our future Commonwealth—to the Tennessee River. By that time settlers were streaming into Kentucky, and the unspoiled wilderness Walker first saw in 1750 would soon be lost forever.