tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-808196871323081802024-03-12T18:16:08.138-07:00Bird's Eye ViewTerry Birdwhistell's UK history blog.Terry Birdwhistellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06195922368048173331noreply@blogger.comBlogger1121125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80819687132308180.post-3559796877913579782021-07-14T06:25:00.000-07:002021-07-14T06:25:47.909-07:00Keeping President McVey in Kentucky<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gMyuALLDT_0/YOtSILx2t9I/AAAAAAAAC58/seZV-i25BAorEMr9xMorvh0mhGoPn_dZgCLcBGAsYHQ/s792/McVey%2Bturns%2Bdown%2Bjob.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="792" data-original-width="726" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gMyuALLDT_0/YOtSILx2t9I/AAAAAAAAC58/seZV-i25BAorEMr9xMorvh0mhGoPn_dZgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/McVey%2Bturns%2Bdown%2Bjob.jpg" /></a></div><p>A century ago this month, the University of Kentucky nearly lost its president. Having been in Kentucky less than four years, Frank LeRond McVey had to make a tough decision in July, 1921. The University of Missouri made the nationally recognized president with a Yale Ph.D. a very enticing offer to become their next president. </p><p>In his biography of McVey (<i>Frank LeRond McVey and the University of Kentucky: A Progressive President and the Modernization of a Southern University, University Press of Kentucky, 2011) </i>Eric Moyen notes that, "News of the (Missouri) job offer shocked many in Kentucky, and they expressed their fears in the local papers as McVey contemplated a move to Columbia. A deluge of telegrams and letters, along with numerous editorials and resolutions, revealed the immense respect and popularity McVey had earned...in Lexington."</p><p>The <i>Louisville Times</i> editorialized that, "Under his (McVey's) hand the University has broadened and strengthened, and if he stands by his task it will someday be an institution which will be of more value to the state than all of the fustian, outworn tommyrot about horses, women, manors and hospitality." A meeting of university professors unanimously issued a letter begging McVey "not to embarrass Kentucky by leaving" and pledging their "hearty support and cooperation."</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--s0BjsoBJWE/YOtSACaWWGI/AAAAAAAAC50/rmm-g1A67eMoR-Gzj9hpJOxe6hFPJybSACLcBGAsYHQ/s1796/McVey%2Bheadshot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1796" data-original-width="1136" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--s0BjsoBJWE/YOtSACaWWGI/AAAAAAAAC50/rmm-g1A67eMoR-Gzj9hpJOxe6hFPJybSACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/McVey%2Bheadshot.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">President Frank LeRond McVey</td></tr></tbody></table><p>Apparently UK intended to match any salary offered by Missouri. And fortunately for Kentucky, Mabel McVey, the president's spouse, was less that keen on relocating to Missouri. Learning that Frank has reservations about the president's home in Missouri, Mabel wrote, "I shouldn't worry about Missouri if I were you - Certainly if they expect their president to live in a hole of a house the job is a hole of a job."</p><p>Thanks to Eric Moyen's superb biography of McVey, we know that his twenty-two years as UK's president were some of the most important years in UK's long history. He is recognized to this day as one of UK's greatest presidents. We should still be glad that he chose a century ago to remain in the Bluegrass. </p>Terry Birdwhistellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06195922368048173331noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80819687132308180.post-68329445384498874032021-04-26T11:44:00.000-07:002021-04-26T11:44:30.572-07:00TO MARRY OR NOT TO MARRY? (April is National Poetry Month)<p> </p><span> </span><span> </span>To marry or not to marry became a major theme among UK women in the 1920's and 1930's. Must one choose between marriage and career? At the time most women could not have both. The issue of marriage became a subject that many women expressed their feelings about through poems. <br /><br />Old Maid (1925)<br />Sarah Litsey<br /><br />“She caught at life with far too fragile hands.<br />Being well versed in patience such as hers<br />It managed to evade her mild demands.<div>Pleasurable martyrdom which sometimes slurs.<br />Across the prickly edge of torn conceit<br />Guarded her vanity. Small duties done<br />Rounded her hours and made each day complete.</div><div>Her life went out in dribbles. One by one<br />She laid the passionless, pale days aside.<br />Then she adopted a thin, scraggly boy;<br />And all the neighbors wondered when she died<br />If he had been a duty or a joy. <br />Now he is tall and gay and rather brave,<br />and once each year sends flowers to her grave.” <br /><br /><br />Spinsterhood (1932)<br />Anonymous<br /><br />“I am a book of one volume,<br />Pocket edition, and easy to carry around.<br />Yet I remain quietly upon my dutiful shelf.</div><div>But if you care to dip within my neat covers<br />You will find surprising things-<br />Great hopes, gay laughter, cruel disappointment,<br />And all the back and forth, that saws a heart in two.” <br /><br /> <br />Misunderstood (1931)<br />Anonymous <br /><br />I sit with the sick,<br />I comfort the dying-<br />Men look at me, and do not see.<br />They think I'm shy!<br />They cannot know that long ago<br />Out of a book a Knight came riding by.</div><div><br />These men about me<br />Are fat men, thin men;<br />They sweat in summer time.<br />They sell socks and ties,<br />And gasoline and groceries,<br />And have not words to charm my heart. <br /><br />When I am dead.<br />They will write upon my tomb;<br />"She never know [sic] love"-<br />And will not guess<br />I loved myself too well to share<br />My own exquisiteness<br />With less than Lochinvar.<br /><br />So I make pretense<br />And send abroad another self<br />To gossip with the world.<br />I sit with the sick,<br />I comfort the dying,<br />And men look at me and say:<br />"Pity, she never married." <br /><br /><span> </span><span> </span>Yet, even if they chose to marry some women were unsure about the eventuality of such a union. Kathryn Myrick wrote in 1931:<br /><br />Marriage<br />Kathryn Myrick<br /><br />And then you asked, "How long will you love me?"<br />And in a low, choked voice I answered dutifully, "Forever,"<br />But even as I spoke I knew I lied.<br />"Forever" is too long a time for love.<br />Love is sharp and bright,<br />Love is youth and smiling eyes,<br />Who hums a haunting little tune<br />As he strolls along.<br />He stops only one hour<br />To gather fragrant blossoms to wear in his golden hair. <br /><br /><span> </span><span> </span>Moreover, some women realized that marriage was not just about love, but about their personal freedom. Anne Luxon, a recent UK graduate, expressed her feelings in 1932: <br /><br />Freedom<br />Anne Luxon<br /><br />My husband has left me.<br />At last I can<br />Listen to the rain on the roof,<br />Or sit up in bed<br />And watch the moon.</div><div>My husband has left me.<br />I ought to be sad.</div><div><br /></div><div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">From </span><i style="color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Our Rightful Place: Women at the University of Kentucky, 1880-1945</b></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (University Press of Kentucky) 2020</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div></div>Terry Birdwhistellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06195922368048173331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80819687132308180.post-50591162807582920452021-04-20T10:18:00.000-07:002021-04-20T10:18:14.945-07:00WHO'S WATCHING THE SPIES - WALTER MONDALE (1928-2021)<p>Former United States Senator and Vice President Walter <span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">"Fritz" </span>Mondale (1928-2021) lived a life of service to his country. An important part of that service was his participation in a review of intelligence activities by the United States. Serving with him during than investigation was Walter Dee Huddleston, UK graduate and United States Senator from 1973 to 1985. For several years Senator Huddleston worked with the University of Kentucky Libraries Wendell H. Ford Public Policy Research Center to bring important programs and speakers to UK.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-k6k7JlYtbIc/YH8E2tQd1PI/AAAAAAAAC3A/ykDToJeyHBQKy8oKOnOuiuaCTRiNTBatQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/mondale.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1120" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-k6k7JlYtbIc/YH8E2tQd1PI/AAAAAAAAC3A/ykDToJeyHBQKy8oKOnOuiuaCTRiNTBatQCLcBGAsYHQ/w219-h400/mondale.jpg" width="219" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p>In September, 2006 the University hosted a panel discussion about United States spy programs entitled, "Who's Watching the Spies?" The event was sponsored by UK Libraries Ford Center, the UK School of Journalism and the First Amendment Center. Dr. Tracy Campbell, UK Professor of History and Co-Director of the Ford Center, chaired the panel discussion. Participating on the panel were Vice-President Mondale, Senator Huddleston, and Fred A.O. Schwarz, former Chief Council of the U.S. Senate Church Committee which investigated United States intelligence practices in the 1970s.</p><p>The <i>Kentucky Kernel</i> afterwards editorialized that, "UK students got a rare opportunity to hear about U.S. history told by a group that has shaped it."</p><p>The event, held in Memorial Hall and attended by several hundred people, was also broadcast on C-SPAN which you can view here. <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?194406-1/church-committee-report-us-spy-agencies">Church Committee Report on U.S. Spy Agencies | C-SPAN.org (c-span.org)<span> </span></a></p>Terry Birdwhistellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06195922368048173331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80819687132308180.post-32155984261173312612021-04-12T11:32:00.002-07:002021-04-12T11:45:32.114-07:00MY AUTOMOBILE SET ME FREE<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal">Between the First and Second World Wars, University of Kentucky
women (students, alumnae, faculty, and faculty spouses, published poems in <i>Letters</i>, the campus literary magazine
and in the <i>Kentucky Kernel</i>. Many of the poems explored the contradictions in women’s lives, their views toward careers and marriage, and expressions of
freedom.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Perhaps more than anything the automobile changed both the
perception and the reality of women’s lives during this period. Cars offered a degree of freedom not
previously experienced by women, and they quickly realized and understood the
extent of this change. It also provided
women a means of transportation without depending on men or public
transportation. Writing in <i>Letters</i> in the summer of 1930, Louise
Good, a member of the University Scribbler's Club and Chair of Literature for
the Kentucky Federation of Women’s Clubs, aptly described this sense of freedom
for women:</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i>My Automobile</i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: center;">My automobile is a jailor's key</div><div style="text-align: center;">Unlocking my chains and setting me free</div><div style="text-align: center;">Setting me free on the open road</div><div style="text-align: center;">A gypsy song my only goad</div><div style="text-align: center;">With seven-league boots I'm swiftly shod</div><div style="text-align: center;">I'm armed with Mercury's winged rod</div><div style="text-align: center;">I step on the carpet of Bagdad and soar</div><div style="text-align: center;">Far, far away from my prison door.</div><div style="text-align: center;">No pirate, watching his foaming keel,</div><div style="text-align: center;">Feels freer than I, in my automobile.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VuSkTvpsxFQ/YHRiWj9FmzI/AAAAAAAAC2s/YVPnHbnj_9g4CG8Eih-aOKlpEr-sjL23ACLcBGAsYHQ/s783/woman%2Bin%2Bcar.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="783" data-original-width="503" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VuSkTvpsxFQ/YHRiWj9FmzI/AAAAAAAAC2s/YVPnHbnj_9g4CG8Eih-aOKlpEr-sjL23ACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/woman%2Bin%2Bcar.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">From </span><i style="color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Our Rightful Place: Women at the University of Kentucky, 1880-1945</b></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (University Press of Kentucky) 2020</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">April is National Poetry Month</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></p></div>Terry Birdwhistellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06195922368048173331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80819687132308180.post-48516907613554795642021-03-30T07:31:00.000-07:002021-03-30T07:31:59.582-07:00REMEMBERING AL SMITH<p><span style="text-indent: 0in;">Many poignant
memories have been shared over the past week following the death of Al Smith
and deservedly so.</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">Al meant as much or
more to Kentucky as any elected official.</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">
</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">He was the conscience and crusader for many of the progressive changes
that the commonwealth desperately needed and still needs.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l4bdcOvRJg8/YGMz19d61mI/AAAAAAAAC2Y/xLqdbShxSgIcsCsMeNDGR4hozorcm87sQCLcBGAsYHQ/s373/Al%2BSmith.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="373" data-original-width="340" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l4bdcOvRJg8/YGMz19d61mI/AAAAAAAAC2Y/xLqdbShxSgIcsCsMeNDGR4hozorcm87sQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Al%2BSmith.jpg" /></a></div><span style="text-indent: 0in;"><p><span style="text-indent: 0in;">I first met Al in
the 1970s when one of his projects was to fund and expand oral history research
in Kentucky, not just at colleges and universities but also through a network
of public libraries across Kentucky.</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">
</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">Working with John Ed Pearce they convinced Governor Julian Carroll of
the need and back then that was all that was needed to procure state
funding.</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">They established the Kentucky Oral
History Commission, the only one in the United States, and over the years the
Commission has funded hundreds of oral history projects.</span></p></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="text-indent: 0in;">I always felt
fortunate to spend time with Al.</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">We once
met for breakfast at a local restaurant for reasons I do not recall.</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">But I do remember sitting there with Al
trying to absorb the rush of ideas and topics he went through seemingly without
taking a breath.</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">As the clock moved from
morning towards noon, our server stopped by our booth and asked, “Would you
like to see a lunch menu?”</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">Breakfast and
lunch could often bookend a meeting with Al.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="text-indent: 0in;">When Al and Rudy
Abramson decided that the University of Kentucky needed an Institute for Rural Journalism, there was no turning back.</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">
</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">They secured $50,000 in grants to begin planning and establishing the
groundwork for the institute.</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">They then convinced
UK President Lee Todd to get behind the effort.</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="text-indent: 0in;">Al and Rudy
recruited the distinguished Appalachian scholar Ron Eller, Journalism professor Roy Moore, and me to manage the grants.</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">We used the seed money to hold information
and listening sessions across a broad swath of Appalachia including Kentucky,
Tennessee, West Virginia, and North Carolina.</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">
</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">Not only did Al seek the support of scholars, activists, and civic
leaders, he sought to convince them that the institute should be at the University of
Kentucky.</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">Of course, Al and Rudy made
the institute a reality, hired Al Cross. and the rest as they say is history.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="text-indent: 0in;">Al wrote all of his
adult life but before he began his two volume memoir I thought he should do a
series of oral history interviews about his life and career.</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">It took some time to convince the seemingly
ever moving Al to sit for two hour interview sessions, but he finally
acquiesced.</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">Know far and wide for his
ability to talk at length, when I told people I had begun a series of
interviews with Al the inevitable refrain was, “Do you ever get to ask a
question?”</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">I always replied, “Yes, I get
to ask one question at each interview session.”</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">
</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">Then I would be asked, “Well, how do you choose the question to ask
since you only get one per session.</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">I
said, “Oh, it’s always the same question.</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">
</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">Al, can you wait until I turn on the recorder?”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="text-indent: 0in;">I told that story innumerable
times in Al’s presence and he always seemed to enjoy it as much as my
audience.</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">Al was that way.</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">He was serious about issues and did not
hesitate to stand atop a bully pulpit.</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">
</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">But he was also a humble, sincere, kind, and gentle man.</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">We do not get many like Al Smith and that is
why we will miss him so much.</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">Here is hoping
that others will take up his crusades in such a way that Kentucky continues to make progress and that the life and work of Al Smith will be both remembered and honored.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>Terry Birdwhistellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06195922368048173331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80819687132308180.post-68187258209019724762021-03-26T06:35:00.001-07:002021-03-26T06:38:54.798-07:00A BIG HEART AND A HELPING HAND - FRANCES JEWELL MCVEY<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Frances Jewell McVey seemingly tried to look out for everyone. For example, Clifford Amos arrived on campus from Pike County, Kentucky in the middle of the Great Depression. A first generation college student, he had grown up in a coal camp and began college at UK with no more than a few dollars in his pocket. Clifford found a job waiting tables and took on a paper route among various other part-time jobs. He remembered working up to 75 hours a week as a student just to survive.</span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e1hTAeL3AVQ/YFdl2kvdt7I/AAAAAAAAC10/Ch8Rsdcrj4MROWM0MEpFfbgE08zECPvOgCLcBGAsYHQ/s404/Clifford%2BAmos.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="404" data-original-width="323" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e1hTAeL3AVQ/YFdl2kvdt7I/AAAAAAAAC10/Ch8Rsdcrj4MROWM0MEpFfbgE08zECPvOgCLcBGAsYHQ/w160-h200/Clifford%2BAmos.jpg" width="160" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clifford Amos</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><p></p><p>One November afternoon in 1938, while walking along Limestone Street near the campus, Clifford fainted on the sidewalk, a result of hunger and exhaustion. Frances Jewell McVey, heard about Clifford’s misfortune and immediately sent word for Clifford to meet with her at Maxwell Place. After some conversation, McVey offered Clifford a place to live on the second floor of the garage in back of Maxwell Place to save money. Three other boys already lived there. Clifford’s only payment for his room was to do a few chores each month. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rRc5yo28cLA/YFd8YZUg-EI/AAAAAAAAC18/BzEYo_TmSZcO_nMZLUGDyUr0p85uN2eWACLcBGAsYHQ/s800/Maxwell%2BPlace%2BHistoric%2BMarker_edited.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="596" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rRc5yo28cLA/YFd8YZUg-EI/AAAAAAAAC18/BzEYo_TmSZcO_nMZLUGDyUr0p85uN2eWACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Maxwell%2BPlace%2BHistoric%2BMarker_edited.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>Clifford lived in that garage until he graduated. He told me years later in an interview for the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History that “Mrs. McVey saved my life. I was too young to fully appreciate what she had done. I was just trying to survive.” Clifford fondly remembered that McVey would often walk out to the garage and ask, “Clifford, have you eaten yet?” She would then invite him into the Maxwell Place kitchen for a meal. Clifford admitted, “There I was just a little mountain boy, who didn’t know straight up! Mrs. McVey always asked me how school was going and if there was anything else she could do to help me. She was a leader without personal ambition. She was always there to help those in need and never seemed to be in a hurry. She was as down to earth as anyone I ever knew.”</p><p></p><p><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">From <i><b>Our Rightful Place: Women at the University of Kentucky, 1880-1945</b></i> (University Press of Kentucky) 2020</span></p><p><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Also see oral history interview with Clifford Amos, December 5, 1991 in the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, UK Libraries (</span><span face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px;">1991oh408_af459). https://kentuckyoralhistory.org/<span> </span></span></p><p><br /></p><br />Terry Birdwhistellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06195922368048173331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80819687132308180.post-24035013599894816672021-03-16T11:12:00.001-07:002021-03-16T11:14:25.199-07:00A BAND OF OUR OWN<p>Until World War II the UK band was all-male. But in the spring of 1927, UK band director Elmer Sulzer casually mentioned to some women students that they should one day have a band of their own. Without further encouragement, forty-five women students met to form a brass band. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tT90w7rCifs/YFD0xBSGsMI/AAAAAAAAC1g/TZLoHA0h6mo7sDO1BhGydZ5aAgjH2W0ggCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Band%2B-%2Bwomen.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1409" data-original-width="2048" height="275" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tT90w7rCifs/YFD0xBSGsMI/AAAAAAAAC1g/TZLoHA0h6mo7sDO1BhGydZ5aAgjH2W0ggCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h275/Band%2B-%2Bwomen.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Reporting this phenomenon in the <i>Kentucky Kernel</i> under the headline "Males Again Retreat," Katherine Best wrote: "Weep, men, at your loss of prestige. No longer will ye olde brass band (male) strut down the field of honor with roses and hollyhocks strewn in its path; no longer will hats be raised to welcome 'the greatest band in Dixie.' No! Its rival has appeared! And on its own campus, too. We fear the results!" </p><p>Best added, "The only requirements for membership are a speaking acquaintance with music, and the rather restrictive quality of being a girl! Therefore, if your momma calls you daughter and you can read music, report to practice Tuesday, state your preference as to instruments, and automatically become a member."</p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">From </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Our Rightful Place: Women at the University of Kentucky, 1880-1945</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"> (University Press of Kentucky) 2020</span></p>Terry Birdwhistellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06195922368048173331noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80819687132308180.post-221031811460780712021-03-04T06:29:00.001-08:002021-06-01T00:02:34.661-07:00UK's FIRST WOMAN FACULTY MEMBER <p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">In December 1901, the college employed Florence Offutt to serve as
Assistant Physical Director of the Gymnasium in charge of women's instruction.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Offutt was a cousin of Henry Stites Barker,
future president of the University of Kentucky, in whose home she spent a great
deal of her youth.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">After graduating from
Louisville Girls' High School in 1896, Offutt studied physical education for a
few months at the University of Chicago before completing a two-year degree in
Physical Education at the highly regarded and coeducational New Haven Normal
School of Gymnastics.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in; text-indent: .5in;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NcDbO-aZ9fQ/YD_NdCZ7iyI/AAAAAAAAC0g/w0pnsT1EMXEB_EwrlnBwDcJXCC86fEKcwCLcBGAsYHQ/s565/Stout%252C%2BFloroence%2BOffutt.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="565" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NcDbO-aZ9fQ/YD_NdCZ7iyI/AAAAAAAAC0g/w0pnsT1EMXEB_EwrlnBwDcJXCC86fEKcwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Stout%252C%2BFloroence%2BOffutt.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Florence Offutt</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Offutt recalled that while living in Lexington with her Uncle James
and Aunt Ella Offutt Pepper in 1901, she waited for her chance to “uplift” the
public with her “specialty” which was new to Kentucky.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">She also made note of the recently completed
“handsome new gymnasium” at UK that had no woman director of physical
education.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Offutt secured a meeting with
President Patterson to discuss a possible teaching position.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Patterson told her "courteously but
firmly" that "no vacancy existed or would."</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">However, only six months later at the
December 1901, meeting the board voted unanimously to hire Offutt as the
Assistant Physical Director of the Gymnasium in charge of women’s instruction
at a salary of $800 per year.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Offutt
took great pleasure in pointing out that, due to illness, President Patterson
missed the meeting at which she was hired, thereby losing the opportunity to
argue against her employment.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Soon after Offutt’s appointment to the faculty she “happened to see” a
letter written by President Patterson to the board harshly criticizing her
employment.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">But Offutt did not shy from
a possible fight and noting that, “she loved his courage,” she went to see
Patterson.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">She recalled that since she
and the president were both Scottish, they each “liked a good fight for
something we believe in.”</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">She eventually
won the president's grudging respect and support despite telling him at one
point, “I love to think of your being older than my grandfather.”</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">According to Offutt, the elderly president
replied to such remarks "with a lack of enthusiasm."</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">She also noted that Patterson worried about
her first appearance before the faculty senate's "solemn enclaves"
since "no weak female" had been there before.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Offutt admitted that she "enjoyed"
her "scraps" with the other faculty which were at times "quite
colorful, if a little strenuous."</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">She considered such skirmishes "inspiring in the extreme.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0in;">."</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0in;"> </span></p><div><div id="edn1">
</div>
</div><div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
</div>
</div>Terry Birdwhistellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06195922368048173331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80819687132308180.post-1923182863834255632021-03-01T06:39:00.002-08:002021-06-01T00:14:29.154-07:00LEONORA HOEING - WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-O-VxPsds_CI/YDvw59xOG2I/AAAAAAAAC0I/KNfyWOFfDjMi1nFaUuvxQSB542z2wMm_ACLcBGAsYHQ/s447/Our%2BRightful.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="447" data-original-width="298" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-O-VxPsds_CI/YDvw59xOG2I/AAAAAAAAC0I/KNfyWOFfDjMi1nFaUuvxQSB542z2wMm_ACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Our%2BRightful.jpg" /></a></div><span> <span> </span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;"><span style="text-indent: 0in;"> Four years after women first entered
UK, eighteen-year-old Leonora Hoeing became the first woman recognized at
commencement when she received her Normal Department certificate. </span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">A newspaper reporter noted that the 1884
ceremony had a "new and extremely pleasant feature to it" in that,
"one of the graduates wore a white dress and a blush that was as daintily
pink as the inside of a sea-shell from the Indian Ocean.</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">Yes, one of the graduates was a young lady, and
when his Excellency Governor Knott handed her diploma to her he looked as if he
wanted to welcome her into the ranks of the wise with just a touch of his gray
mustache to her velvet cheek."</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">
</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">Highlighting the greater access that UK offered to white women from the
working class, the reporter added that Hoeing was "none of your bilious
blue-stockings either…."</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5WsK8bb9w2E/YDvxyA-GqkI/AAAAAAAAC0Q/jyzbbvzhQ4I-xUxwUNvXSpasqc1jQmSOQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2563/campus%2B1882_edited.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1227" data-original-width="2563" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5WsK8bb9w2E/YDvxyA-GqkI/AAAAAAAAC0Q/jyzbbvzhQ4I-xUxwUNvXSpasqc1jQmSOQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/campus%2B1882_edited.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;"> This first generation of women students at UK
were the daughters of some of central Kentucky’s most elite families, but most
were the daughters of shopkeepers and trades people firmly rooted in an
expanding middle class in Kentucky. For
example, Hoeing’s father, Joseph, and mother, Rebecca, both emigrated from
Germany. Joseph worked in Lexington as a
silversmith and Rebecca was a hairdresser.
We may never know the multitude of factors that motivated these families
to support their daughters’ educations, but we know the role their daughters
played as educational pioneers and that their lives were changed. But to dispel any notion of higher education’s
negative impact on women, the correspondent concluded that Hoeing “was a fresh,
healthy young woman, with an eye as full and bright as a dove’s, and the head
of a Greek Venus on a neck like a lily-stalk” and was “a happy, wholesome,
appetizing creature, with an expression of frank good-fellowship about her,
well mingled with a becoming and maidenly modesty.”</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p> Finally addressing Hoeing’s academic
accomplishments, the reporter wrote that she “had taken a double course of
study this year, but it seemed to have agreed with her.” He also noted, even though she was awarded a
normal certificate and not a Bachelor’s degree “like they did the boys,” her
accomplishments are “…all the same though, for she knows as much as the others,
has taken the same course, won the first prize in mathematics over every rascal
of them, and if she is not a ‘Mistress of Arts’ she is the first woman I ever
saw that wasn't. The boys didn't seem to
be envious of her at all, but cheered her every chance they had with hearty
good will."</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">From <i>Our Rightful Place: Women at the University of Kentucky, 1880-1945</i> (University Press of Kentucky) 2020</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in;">
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
</div>
</div><br />Terry Birdwhistellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06195922368048173331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80819687132308180.post-65557510499688303952021-02-18T09:27:00.002-08:002021-02-18T09:29:26.964-08:00ARRESTING COWS?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PNagN9fD4IE/YC6jOgAJsVI/AAAAAAAACys/hQnxyEs_U9k8U6ekn4QTl7_5mVcl9rgMQCLcBGAsYHQ/s257/cow%2Bin%2Bcourt%2Bedited.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="257" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PNagN9fD4IE/YC6jOgAJsVI/AAAAAAAACys/hQnxyEs_U9k8U6ekn4QTl7_5mVcl9rgMQCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/cow%2Bin%2Bcourt%2Bedited.jpeg" /></a></div><p>On November 3, 1889 the local Lexington newspaper reported a problem on the city's south side:</p><p>"There comes a complaint from the south side of town in regard to the wholesale arrest of cows that are found on the State College grounds. It seems the gates leading into the college enclosure are left open and cows stray in to nip the tempting Bluegrass. As soon as the college authorities see them the police are telephoned for and the poor cows are arrested and locked up. This entails considerable trouble and expense on the owners of the cows, and at the same time there would be no such arrests if the gates mentioned were kept fastened."</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-bGW1Ig9oyxs/YC56ynTpRDI/AAAAAAAACyQ/YDdGt9rEVEEB6qhBipsHcLkLQcd7e5nsQCLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="2048" height="160" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-bGW1Ig9oyxs/YC56ynTpRDI/AAAAAAAACyQ/YDdGt9rEVEEB6qhBipsHcLkLQcd7e5nsQCLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />It seems that in addition to his myriad duties of teaching in the academy and overseeing the construction of the first women's dormitory, the UK President's brother, Walter K. Patterson also had to contend with the trespassing cows.<p></p><p>The newspaper reported four days later that:</p><p>"Mrs. Caden's cow was permitted by her to trespass on the grounds of the State College, to which Professor W. K. Patterson objected and had Mrs. Caden's cow arrested by Officer Reagan." </p><p>The case against Mrs. Caden and her wandering cow was heard in the local court and after some delay the case was dismissed, no reason given.</p><p>James K. Patterson's own cows grazed on the campus in the area where UK began playing football on Stoll Field. Perhaps that was one reason that President Patterson opposed the establishment of football at his college.</p><p></p>Terry Birdwhistellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06195922368048173331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80819687132308180.post-31938755670149709402021-01-16T09:21:00.005-08:002021-01-16T09:24:44.243-08:00UK's Celebration of the First National Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday<p style="background-color: white; color: #202122; margin: 0.5em 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-z86smsvtnKU/YAMgi5WNOQI/AAAAAAAACtY/p7kEWK7unFY1-gC1MrYP0me3Ro3gxX6JACLcBGAsYHQ/s1695/King%2BHoliday%2Bad%2B1986%2B%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1460" data-original-width="1695" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-z86smsvtnKU/YAMgi5WNOQI/AAAAAAAACtY/p7kEWK7unFY1-gC1MrYP0me3Ro3gxX6JACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/King%2BHoliday%2Bad%2B1986%2B%25282%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202122; margin: 0.5em 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Through the efforts of State Senator Georgia Davis Powers and Representative Mae Street Kidd in 1974, the Kentucky legislature passed legislation signed into law by Governor Wendell Ford recognizing King Day as a state holiday.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202122; margin: 0.5em 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In 1975 Governor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Carroll" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Julian Carroll">Julian Carroll</a> declared the first King Day in Kentucky, but state employees were not given the day off.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">President Ronald Reagan signed national legislation in 1983 creating the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday to go into effect in 1986. Reagan originally opposed the legislation citing cost concerns. Initially, several states ignored the holiday and not until 1991 was King Day recognized by all fifty states.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">During January, 1986 the University of Kentucky and several community groups held a series of observances honoring the first national celebration of the King Holiday. Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth spoke Friday, January 17 in the King Library Gallery on "Reflections on the Civil Rights Movement and the Role of Martin Luther King, Jr." </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Chester Grundy, director of the office of minority student affairs said of Shuttlesworth, "We feel really fortunate to have him on campus because he was a very close associate of King...one of his political confidants." Shuttlesworth, one
of the founders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, had been instrumental in organizing ministers in Birmingham, Alabama after local officials outlawed the NAACP. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">On Sunday, January 19, a march began in front of Memorial Coliseum that included 70 organizations including UK departments, student organizations, and community groups. An estimated 1,200 people marched in the snow from the Coliseum up Rose Street to Washington Avenue, across to South Limestone and back to the Coliseum. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">At a program following the march in the Coliseum, Lexington Mayor Scotty Baesler read a proclamation naming January 19 Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in Fayette County. <span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">UK's Vice-Chancellor for Minority Affairs William C. Parker told the audience, that Dr. King "never stopped pursuing his ideas and never gave up on people--even his enemies."</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202122; margin: 0.5em 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">For more UK history visit: </span><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #202122; font-family: arial;">https://exploreuk.uky.edu/ </span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; margin: 0.5em 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #202122; font-family: arial;"></span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; margin: 0.5em 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #202122; font-family: arial;"><span><br /></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.5em 0px;"><br /></p>Terry Birdwhistellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06195922368048173331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80819687132308180.post-24591392128402768912020-12-07T08:18:00.000-08:002020-12-07T08:18:45.819-08:00Pearl Harbor and Beyond <p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">In a
report to the UK Board of Trustees at its May 29, 1942 meeting, President Herman Lee Donovan made it painfully clear the significant impact that Pearl Harbor and World War II was already having on the
University of Kentucky.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">---------------------------------------------</span></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">UNIVERSITY'S
MEN IN SERVICE</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Thousands
of our former students and graduates are in the various armed forces of the
United States fighting for democracy.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Hundreds
of them are officers in the United States Army, having received their training
in the R.O.T.C.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">The University is represented
on the battlefields of the world.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Among
our graduates are men in the Philippines, Australia, India, Egypt, Russia,
Iceland, Ireland, and many other of the outposts of civilization.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">The University already had its dead, its
captured, its missing and its wounded.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">It also had its heroes in this titanic struggle for freedom.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">We do not know all of those who have thus far
given their lives for their country, but among its dead are two local boys who
were graduated from the University but recently.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">They are Lieutenant Harry E. Bullock, Jr.,
son of Mr. and Mrs. Harry E. Bullock of Lexington, and Lieutenant John R. Evan,
Jr., son-in-law of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Hillenmeyer of the Georgetown Pike.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Lieutenant
Albert W. Moffett of the United States Marine Corps is reported among the
missing.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">He may be a prisoner of
war.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">He was graduated from the University
in 1939 and has been fighting in the Philippines.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Captain
Tom Spickard, of Princeton, Kentucky, has been decorated for gallantry.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">He destroyed two Japanese machine gun nests,
and when his company found that it had been encircled by the Japanese in the
Philippines, he led his men through a mountain pass over terrain very difficult
to negotiate and traveled seventy-five miles in thirty hours without food for
his men in order to join the main body of troops.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Captain Spickard is among those who are
missing or captured.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">He was either at
Bataan or Corregidor when last hear of.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Ensign
Bailey Price, of Madisonville, of the United States Navy, was killed during the
Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">He attended the University of Kentucky before entering the United States
Naval Academy at Annapolis.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">This
list could be extended to great length if we had complete information regarding
the former students and graduates of the University who are now active in the
service of their country.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Known UK men serving in the military as of May, 1942:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Students: </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">363 </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Alumni: </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">507 </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Faculty: </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">55</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">---------------------------------------------------</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">World War II would not end for another three and a half years. By then, over 300,000 Kentuckians saw military service, many of them UK students, alumni, and faculty. Over time, UK Registrar Ezra L. Gillis compiled a list of 9,265 Kentuckians who died in World War II. That list was later used to place the names of those Kentuckians on the walls of Memorial Coliseum which opened in 1950.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><span style="font-family: times;"></span><p></p>Terry Birdwhistellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06195922368048173331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80819687132308180.post-62184104333720092732020-12-04T07:10:00.016-08:002020-12-04T07:16:36.025-08:00LADY BIRD JOHNSON<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Lady Bird Johnson, known
for her steadfast support of Lyndon Johnson, her business acumen, and her
political skills, was recently featured on the CNN series, America's First
Ladies. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Kentucky Senator Earle
C. Clements and his family were very close friends with the Johnson family and
socialized together often. Senator
Clements served as Minority Whip when Senator Johnson was Majority Leader of
the Senate. When Lady Bird Johnson became First Lady, she chose the
Clements' daughter, Bess Clements Abell, to serve as White House Social
Secretary.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RTpaJaW3Z1Y/X8pPmVhTf6I/AAAAAAAACr0/DG9jZ5ny0-IVicPG32wb0Gvod9TKJELbwCLcBGAsYHQ/s480/Abell%2B-%2BJohnson%2Bfamily_edited.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="368" data-original-width="480" height="306" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RTpaJaW3Z1Y/X8pPmVhTf6I/AAAAAAAACr0/DG9jZ5ny0-IVicPG32wb0Gvod9TKJELbwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h306/Abell%2B-%2BJohnson%2Bfamily_edited.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(L-R) Bess Clements Abell, Lady Bird Johnson, Tyler Abell, <br />Lyndon Abell, Dan Abell, and President Lyndon Johnson<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">When UK Libraries held the dedication ceremony of the Earle C. Clements
Collection in 1978, Lady Bird Johnson offered the major address and spent the
evening at Maxwell Place with Otis and Gloria Singletary.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Dr. Singletary served as the first Director
of the Jobs Corps in the Johnson Administration and had taught at the
University of Texas several years before coming to Kentucky.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">I interviewed Lady Bird
Johnson in 1976 at the Johnson Library in Austin, Texas for our Earle C.
Clements Oral History Collection. Below is an edited version of what Mrs.
Johnson had to share that day.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">JOHNSON:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> Lyndon relied on him [Clements] for solid
judgment. Senator Clements was a man who just commanded respect and also
liking in the Senate and he and Lyndon made a great team I think.
He could appeal to members of the Senate that might be turned off by Lyndon
sometimes. He was a very solid man of wisdom and sage good judgment
and Lyndon had great affection for him. They just worked together
beautifully. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">When Lyndon had a heart
attack in July of '55 it was touch and go. Well, first we didn't know
whether he was going to live. Second we didn't know when or whether he
would be coming back to the job of Majority Leader which was a terribly
demanding job. But one of the first visitors that he began to insist on
seeing and just deviling the doctors until they let him see him was
Senator Clements who then began to come to the hospital giving Lyndon
little resumes of the day or the week in the Senate and who was doing
what and how certain programs and bills were faring. Then they
would talk about what they could do to make them run better and how
they could get the troops lined up better. That went on almost daily, I
expect as soon as Lyndon could see visitors. He was in the hospital in Bethesda
for six weeks. I expect that Senator Clements began coming perhaps
after the first week or ten days.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">BIRDWHISTELL:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> Did you feel that their
personalities were similar or did their differences complement each other?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">JOHNSON:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> No I did not think they were similar, I
thought they complemented each other. Lyndon was more of a driver, more
insistent and Senator Clements was more smooth and quiet and diplomatic.
Between them they could handle many of the elements of that very
diverse body, the Senate.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">BIRDWHISTELL:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> Was Mr. Johnson generally pleased
with Senator Clements' performance?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">JOHNSON:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> You bet he was. He admired him and had
respect. They were a good team.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">BIRDWHISTELL:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> Senator Clements has been described by
some as a very secretive man and one newspaper article stated that he
didn't even like to inform his staff of his whereabouts when he was
traveling. Did you find Mr. Clements to be secretive?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">JOHNSON:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> No I didn't. He didn't go around shooting
off his mouth all the time (laughter) and he didn't just love to
make speeches like some people do but where it was wise, sensible, and
desirable to talk, he talked. I think he was a cautious man.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">BIRDWHISTELL:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> Senator Clements became involved in
Senator Johnson's presidential campaign in 1959 and 1960. Were you around
him quite a bit during this time to see his involvement in
the campaign?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">JOHNSON:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> Let's see, we went down to Morganfield
in 1960, in the course of that. But the things that I remember
about it were not the political but just the home and the community. Their
home had a collection of furniture, elegant pretty old stuff from the
families down through the years and I just loved the feel of their home. It had
family stories and taste and beautiful things and it just spoke of a
certain way of life. One feels that one knows people better
after you have been in their home. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">It was very evident
in the times that we visited him that Senator Clements had the ability to
bring together diverse elements in Kentucky for whatever objective. I
remember coming back again in '64 when Lyndon was running for the
Presidency and there were about five or six former Governors of Kentucky
on the stand. I'm sure that was all Senator Clements' work
getting them all there and, believe me, they had been in knock-down,
drag-out situations many times. The press and all the local people, and
even they themselves, were probably astonished to discover that they
had all accepted to sit almost side by side on the platform. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">BIRDWHISTELL:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> Tell me about getting to know Mrs.
Clements and Bess.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">JOHNSON:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> Oh, I knew them from at least the early
Senate days. I watched Bess grow up and I was in their home a good many
times in Washington, which was a lovely apartment. A sort of a small
version of their home in<b> </b>Morganfield. And it was sort of a custom
to go there on Sunday and have lunch with them. There was always
Kentucky ham and I would have been disappointed if there hadn't been
(laughter) and it was absolutely delicious. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Senator Clements and
Lyndon's conversation would pretty soon start off on a business nature and
would make good listening in any case. But likely there would be just the
four or five of us. Bess was often out following her own
young life. Then when Bess and Tyler married, Lyndon and I had the
great pleasure of hosting a party for them and getting to know a lot of
their life-long friends.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">BIRDWHISTELL:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> Did Mrs. Clements seem to enjoy being
a political wife in Washington?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">JOHNSON:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> I think she enjoyed her husband and her
daughter and handled her job competently. I would not say it was something
that she sought or it was not particularly her thing. She was just a
lovely, kind person. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">I remember one time, I
forget just what it was, but I think maybe my daughter, Lynda, had an
impacted wisdom tooth. I was at home helping Lyndon in the
campaign, just the sort of thing that I had to do, and I called back and
Mrs. Clements took Lynda to the doctor. She was just so kind to her<b> </b>and
tended to her all day long. Another time when Lynda was, I guess, fourteen and
another little girl came up from Texas to see her. Mrs. Clements packed a
good picnic lunch and we all went to the beach together. It was her
treat and it was very sweet.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">BIRDWHISTELL:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> Bess Clements Abell became your social
secretary in the White House. How did you decide on her as your secretary?<o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MPrICJGvb8A/X8pQFS6HeEI/AAAAAAAACr8/8OJMubQZhzkL-gKxTJasSk_-D2GlFRS7gCLcBGAsYHQ/s1024/Bess%2BLady%2BBird%2Bon%2Bplane.jpg" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="962" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MPrICJGvb8A/X8pQFS6HeEI/AAAAAAAACr8/8OJMubQZhzkL-gKxTJasSk_-D2GlFRS7gCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Bess%2BLady%2BBird%2Bon%2Bplane.jpg" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div></div><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">JOHNSON:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> Oh, gosh, I'm so glad I did.
(laughter) Actually, she had been with me in the Vice- Presidency.
So she came with me in January of '61 and was with me in those two
years and nine months thereabouts. And I think perhaps it was partly
Lyndon and Liz Carpenter may have had a few words to say about it. It just
seemed to be a good thing to do because she had the right blend of quiet
competence and aggressive persistence and creative talents too, the last
in marked degree.</span><div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><br /></span></span><div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MovMBJG2z30/X8pQVicPJRI/AAAAAAAACsE/RX0BuYWgGOQ47rd_bEjgg0hM_iTDCOwxwCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Bess%2Band%2BLady%2BBird.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="309" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MovMBJG2z30/X8pQVicPJRI/AAAAAAAACsE/RX0BuYWgGOQ47rd_bEjgg0hM_iTDCOwxwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Bess%2Band%2BLady%2BBird.jpg" /></a><div style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">BIRDWHISTELL:</b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> Did Bess resemble her father in style and manner?</span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">JOHNSON:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> To some extent I would say yes. She did
because she could always get me to do a lot of work (laughter) and
yet she went about it very quietly and calmly. She could take no for
an answer but not without making several other attempts to get yes!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">It seems I've talked
mostly about work and that was the constant pattern of their lives. Both
Lyndon and Senator Clements. But I might say just one or two other things.
Senator Clements did have fun and did take us with him sometimes to have
fun. Specifically, he liked to go out and watch the harness races at
Rosecroft. Every now and then, say two or three nights during
the summer, he would take us out to Rosecroft where we would
order dinner and then watch the harness races. There would always
be some other members of the Senate and House or the administration
sitting close around.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">BIRDWHISTELL:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> Was he very good at picking the horses?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">JOHNSON:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> (laughter) He enjoyed trying. And I had
the feeling that his Kentucky raising went with him through life, which I
consider a very good thing. I think it's sad when people come to
Washington and leave their roots at home. Indeed he didn't. He
kept the flavor of his region and to me in a very attractive way. He
really belonged to Kentucky.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Lady Bird Johnson was
interviewed October 19, 1976, for the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral
History. Her interview, and other
interviews in the Clements Collection, can be found at </span><a href="https://kentuckyoralhistory.org/">https://kentuckyoralhistory.org</a>. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Wk9fCnDW_HI/X8pRQfnh2YI/AAAAAAAACsU/5Ho3JrogM38XJyLiuyaKSEdnLK-9mGrFwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/NunnCenter-Logo-Master-V15.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="224" data-original-width="1600" height="56" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Wk9fCnDW_HI/X8pRQfnh2YI/AAAAAAAACsU/5Ho3JrogM38XJyLiuyaKSEdnLK-9mGrFwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h56/NunnCenter-Logo-Master-V15.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p></p></div></div>Terry Birdwhistellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06195922368048173331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80819687132308180.post-59715091186341412882020-11-27T07:51:00.025-08:002020-11-27T08:02:00.345-08:00LYDIA ROBERTS FISCHER: TEACHING FOR THE DURATION<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p><div align="center"><br />
</div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">During World War II the
University of Kentucky began hiring women faculty for the duration of the
war. Lydia Roberts Fischer became one of the first women hired. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IuwXpabuXWs/X8EdlN3REUI/AAAAAAAACqw/-89tcZm7ZjQ9gwbPmoOyC5neK0ehOh1bACLcBGAsYHQ/s650/Lydia%2BFischer.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="650" data-original-width="495" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IuwXpabuXWs/X8EdlN3REUI/AAAAAAAACqw/-89tcZm7ZjQ9gwbPmoOyC5neK0ehOh1bACLcBGAsYHQ/w153-h200/Lydia%2BFischer.jpg" width="153" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lydia Roberts, 1928<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">A Lexington native, her
parents owned the L.L. Roberts Furniture Company in a building that is now part
of “The Square” in downtown Lexington. Fischer graduated from UK in 1929
with a degree in mathematics. While in college she became a member of the
Phi Beta Kappa, Mortar Board, Theta Sigma Phi (journalism honorary), Pi Mu
Epsilon (mathematics honorary), and Kappa Delta sorority.</span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Following graduation
Fischer began working towards a M.A. in mathematics. Upon learning of her
plans to marry while still in graduate school, professors in the mathematics
department told Fischer, "Well, that [marriage] does you in. You
won't get your master’s." Fischer responded without hesitation,
"Oh, I think I shall!" - and she did in 1931. Still, Fischer
had no plans for a career other than "housewife and mother" until she
divorced her husband in 1937. As a mother of two small children she knew
she must do something "to earn a living" and enrolled in education
classes at the university. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Securing a position
teaching math at Lexington's Morton Junior High School, Fischer soon learned that she did
not enjoy teaching junior high students and approached UK Dean of Arts and
Science Paul Boyd about the possibility of teaching at UK. Boyd offered
her a position teaching math classes. For the next several years Fischer
taught "regular student" mathematics classes during the war while the
men faculty in the department taught the A.S.T.P. [Army Specialized Training
Program] classes. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Fischer told me that she
never felt discriminated against by the male faculty and administrators until
one day she learned that men hired to do the same work as she in mathematics
made $250 a month as compared to her $150. She immediately went to see
Dean Boyd and asked about the discrepancy in the salaries. Boyd
responded, "Well, I thought you were just teaching for the love of it
anyway." Fisher replied sarcastically, "the money does help a
little bit!" Following her conversation with the dean, Fischer's
salary increased to $250 a month, the same as the men.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GsZgBiU0poA/X8EekywknVI/AAAAAAAACq8/khShgwruxesNWCu7kDsaxmh5YLd32OJDACLcBGAsYHQ/s133/Lydia%2BFischer%2BLafayette.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="133" data-original-width="96" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GsZgBiU0poA/X8EekywknVI/AAAAAAAACq8/khShgwruxesNWCu7kDsaxmh5YLd32OJDACLcBGAsYHQ/w231-h320/Lydia%2BFischer%2BLafayette.jpg" width="231" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lydia Roberts Fischer, 1968<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">After the war Fischer
began teaching math at Lexington's Lafayette High School where she became recognized as one
of the schools outstanding teachers.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Lydia Roberts Fischer
was interviewed October 16 and 26, 1989, for the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral
History. The interviews can be found at <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/80819687132308180/5971509118634141288"><span style="color: blue;">https://kentuckyoralhistory.org</span></a>. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bSobNTIBrhs/X8EfHFHNn_I/AAAAAAAACrE/Rqu1QWnhpOk3bzPksLEWLAVSnwoR8dh0wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/NunnCenter-Logo-Master-V15.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="224" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bSobNTIBrhs/X8EfHFHNn_I/AAAAAAAACrE/Rqu1QWnhpOk3bzPksLEWLAVSnwoR8dh0wCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/NunnCenter-Logo-Master-V15.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt; text-align: left;">Additional information about the history of women students, faculty, and staff can be found in the recently published, </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt; text-align: left;">Our Rightful Place: A History of Women at the University of Kentucky, 1880-1945</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt; text-align: left;">.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813179377/our-rightful-place/
<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p>Terry Birdwhistellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06195922368048173331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80819687132308180.post-56287043838032852802020-10-31T14:10:00.002-07:002020-11-02T05:18:37.675-08:00OTIS SINGLETARY REFLECTING ON HIS GULFPORT CHILDHOOD <p style="text-align: left;"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">President Otis A.
Singletary, born 99 years ago today, served as UK President from 1969 to
1987. Between his leaving the presidency and his death in 2003, I
had the good fortune to conduct nearly 100 hours of interviews with President
Singletary about his life and career. </span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lkL597hoNwQ/X53K723fAVI/AAAAAAAACpU/lC2Pmvvdbo8ptZVJDJ8HvTXMorWH_AjSACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Gulfport.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="307" data-original-width="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lkL597hoNwQ/X53K723fAVI/AAAAAAAACpU/lC2Pmvvdbo8ptZVJDJ8HvTXMorWH_AjSACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Gulfport.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">I have always been
intrigued by the childhood influences on leaders. In our first
interview in 1987, President Singletary talked about his childhood in Gulfport,
Mississippi. After his parents divorced, he recalled fondly living
with his maternal grandparents, John “Scottie” and Annie Jones Walker at 2010 23</span><sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">rd</sup><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> Avenue. In addition, his grandmother’s
father, John Z. Jones also came to live with them.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Both men had a tremendous influence on young
Otis.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Great-grandfather
Jones, whom Singletary called “Dadda” was a Welchman who had spent much of his
life at sea and immigrated to the United States in 1900.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I remember my
grandmother told us Dadda would be coming to live with us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">He
just appeared all of a sudden one day. He got out of a taxi cab and
he had a sea chest and a sea bag and was dressed in his navy blue
double-breasted blazer with the gold buttons and his cap. That old
rascal was a remarkable physical specimen and a great figure of a man.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He was the first honest-to-God character that I ever met up close.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">They built a little
house for him out back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not unlike a lot
of Welshmen, he was very, very pious in his church observances.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He got a heavy dose of religion and had been
to sea all those years, so I guess he was catching up on going to church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dadda used to dress up
on Sunday.</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"> </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He had an old cane and
he would stride, not walk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had
flowing golden-colored hair that was turning white that hung down from that
captain’s cap and a full white mustache.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He cut a magnificent figure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
was something special.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We had fireplaces throughout the house and we chopped our own
wood. We had a big chopping block out in the back yard and we would
take an ax and split those logs and cord the wood. I remember when Dadda
was in his eighties he would strip down to his waist, take that ax, and fling
that thing. He could still split more wood in an hour than I could
in a week. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dadda was a very
different kind of person and I would beg him to tell me stories. He loved to
talk about his time at sea.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had a special
feel for the sea and he enjoyed talking about the storms, the cold, and the
beautiful tropical seas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had been in
all of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had been all over the
world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am sure he embellished those
stories, but they were really great.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I remember one year for
Christmas I got the Book of Knowledge which contained beautiful color pictures
which left such an impression on me.</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>I would find a
particularly interesting picture and I would ask Dadda, “Did you ever see
this?” I'm sure a lot of it he had never seen, but he would make you
believe he had seen it. He would tell me all about what was in the
picture. Maybe he had seen it, who knows?</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Great-grandfather
Dadda died in 1932 but left with young Otis a love of the sea.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Singletary would spend a year at sea during
his college years working on an oil tanker and later served in the Navy during
World War II.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TRVzgCZ4jLg/X53NfSJi8ZI/AAAAAAAACp0/5irDsoFkRbwRe-dMWsy6yY5o_LvAPNJrwCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/paragraph%2Bdivider.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="53" data-original-width="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TRVzgCZ4jLg/X53NfSJi8ZI/AAAAAAAACp0/5irDsoFkRbwRe-dMWsy6yY5o_LvAPNJrwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/paragraph%2Bdivider.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: left;">Grandfather,
John “Scottie” Walker, had the most influence on President Singletary’s early
life.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: left;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: left;">After emigrating from Scotland to
Gulfport in 1888 he worked as a stevedore at the Gulfport docks.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: left;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">My grandfather, John
“Scottie” Walker </span></i><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">was born in Scotland and ran away from home and came to this
country when he was a young man. His father was in the shipbuilding
business back in Scotland and so he found a port city over here. I
don't know how he found the Mississippi Gulf Coast, but he did. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-60D9V0vNfbo/X53KnCYm2UI/AAAAAAAACpQ/ZOXgYvCHejExWSHo5MlR2mlap2i2Yj_SQCLcBGAsYHQ/s562/John%2Bscottie%2Bwalker.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="416" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-60D9V0vNfbo/X53KnCYm2UI/AAAAAAAACpQ/ZOXgYvCHejExWSHo5MlR2mlap2i2Yj_SQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/John%2Bscottie%2Bwalker.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John "Scottie" Walker<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Scottie was a diminutive little man and just as neat as a
pin. He always wore a black suit and vest and a white shirt with a
little black bow tie and he had that little black hat with the little four
indentations. He was a folk figure and everybody knew him. H</span></i><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">e was a representative for Waterman
Steamship Lines. </span></i><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He was my tie to that whole maritime complex in Gulfport.</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I remember he had a green thumb and grew some of the
finest pecan trees. He also had pear trees and he even had some of
the huge orange Japanese persimmon trees. He liked to do things like
that.</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Scottie smoked a pipe all
the time and he had a great trick. When he had finished his can of
Prince Albert he would always put a nickel or a dime in it and place it
somewhere around the house where I might find it. Also, every single
day that he came home from work he stopped by the little drugstore in town and bought
some milk chocolate candy for me. I would see him coming down the
street and boy I’d go after him and start reaching in his pockets because I
knew he had something good. I can still see those little white bags
of candy.</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 0.5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We would sometimes play hooky from school and ride our bikes down
to the pier if we knew there was a Chinese or Japanese ship or something exotic
like that in port. And he would take us on board and let us watch
them unload the cargo or load it, whatever they were doing. He knew
all those people on those ships as they came and went. I remember
him taking us into the galley on one of those old Chinese vessels and having
the cook fix us up all that fancy food. That was a big treat for
me. He would always scold us for cutting school and then he never
would tell on us.</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He was just a thoughtful, nice man. Because of my
mother and father's divorce, my grandfather was the relevant male in my life
early on. He was a gentleman.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I did love that
wonderful, little old man.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He encouraged
me a lot in the boyish games.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had a
theory that games were good for boys and he wanted me to do some of all of
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was a great baseball fan and we
would listen to football and baseball on his Atwater Kent radio.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He once said to me that
he thought that reading books would give you a certain kind of thing, and that
working would do a certain kind of thing, and that playing games would do a
certain kind of thing for you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That each
gave you something that was very different and I think he was right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I went out for the
boxing team even though I was a little small then.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I won my first boxing match and I wanted to
tell him because I knew how proud he would be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He had died during my match. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So
that's kind of curious. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His influence on
me is very strong, very strong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of all
the people in my childhood he was probably the most influential person in a
number of ways.</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">John
“Scottie” Walker’s death in 1938 was a huge personal loss for President Singletary. Nevertheless,
he cherished the memories of his grandfather for the rest of his
life. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><br /><p></p>Terry Birdwhistellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06195922368048173331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80819687132308180.post-70606388638165855602020-10-23T10:21:00.005-07:002020-10-23T10:50:30.642-07:00BESS CLEMENTS ABELL, WASHINGTON'S IRON BUTTERFLY, 1933-2020<p> </p><br /><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"></p><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cGIUZXOVF8I/X5LuOjMetoI/AAAAAAAACoI/sJHn2svm8usp6OaOXuTxalAGrz0qBDkowCLcBGAsYHQ/s351/bess%2Bsenior%2Bphoto%2Bsingle.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="351" data-original-width="336" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cGIUZXOVF8I/X5LuOjMetoI/AAAAAAAACoI/sJHn2svm8usp6OaOXuTxalAGrz0qBDkowCLcBGAsYHQ/w306-h320/bess%2Bsenior%2Bphoto%2Bsingle.jpg" width="306" /></a></div></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">Bess Clements Abell died this month after a lengthy illness at her beloved Merry-Go-Round Farm overlooking the Potomac River outside Washington, D.C. A native Kentuckian and University of Kentucky graduate, she lived an eventful and impactful life. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">Bess spent part of her childhood in Union County, Kentucky where her father, Earle C. Clements, served in elective offices including County Judge. She would later spend time in Frankfort and Washington, D.C. as her father first became a State Senator, Member of Congress, Governor, and United States Senator. Uprooted from her friends and sheltered life, Bess learned to adapt and make the best of it, finding new friends and embracing new experiences wherever she found herself.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">Bess came to understand
the political landscape of Washington as well as she did because she learned so
much from her father. He had extraordinary political knowledge and insight to
share, and many stories to tell. Earle
Clements’ long political career enabled his daughter to expand her world beyond
the boundaries of her small town. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span>Completing high school at a boarding school in Nashville, </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Bess returned to the Bluegrass to attend </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">the University of Kentucky. She did well academically majoring in the
family business, political science, but had not given much thought where that
might lead.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">She also immersed herself in
an active social life, including joining Kappa Alpha Theta sorority and dating the captain of
the football team. She represented Kentucky as the princess to the 1952 Cherry
Blossom Festival in Washington. Upon graduation in 1954 Bess became the first person in her immediate family to earn a college degree.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span>On New Year's Eve, 1955, Bess eloped with Tyler Abell, a young Washington attorney, beginning a wonderful partnership of 64 years. F</span></span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">rom the start of their
marriage, Bess and Tyler found their lives swept into the orbit of Lyndon and
Lady Bird Johnson. They enjoyed close connections thanks to the friendship
Bess’ parents had developed with the Johnsons, and to her father’s role as the majority
leader’s reliable whip in the Senate. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Bess began working for Lady Bird Johnson in 1961. When asked how she came to hire Bess, she responded, "Oh, gosh, I'm so glad I did! She had the right blend of quiet competence and aggressive persistence, and creative talents too–the last in marked degree."</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ek6ASgptruE/X5MJexkJKhI/AAAAAAAACos/FIBlOClQxxc_Z_ykwaKNwBq74I-HZ-sAACLcBGAsYHQ/s480/Abell%2B-%2BJohnson%2Bfamily_edited.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="368" data-original-width="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ek6ASgptruE/X5MJexkJKhI/AAAAAAAACos/FIBlOClQxxc_Z_ykwaKNwBq74I-HZ-sAACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Abell%2B-%2BJohnson%2Bfamily_edited.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(L-R) Bess Clements Abell, Lady Bird Johnson, Tyler Abell, <br />son Lyndon Abell, son Dan Abell, and President Johnson<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span>Bess would become White House Social Secretary when Lyndon Johnson became president in 1963. President </span></span>Johnson once called
Bess Abell the most efficient person working in his White House. “She should be
in the cabinet,” he raved. Had she been born at a later time she might well
have achieved that distinction. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">Bess later served as Chief of Staff to Joan Mondale during the Jimmy Carter administration and later established her own business in Washington, Abell Enterprises.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BB9nElnl1JU/X5L_52Cmt9I/AAAAAAAACog/y8PCc0-BsVsxSWCHDHSA_3u7hZKJ-4KNACLcBGAsYHQ/s480/Bess.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BB9nElnl1JU/X5L_52Cmt9I/AAAAAAAACog/y8PCc0-BsVsxSWCHDHSA_3u7hZKJ-4KNACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Bess.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">In recent years Bess has given back to her Alma Mater. She and Tyler created the Earle C. Clements Graduate Assistantship within UK Libraries. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">They subsequently, in cooperation with the National Archives, created the Earle C. Clements Innovation in Education Award presented annually to outstanding Kentucky teachers of history and social studies. More recently, Bess, Tyler and their family created the Earle C. Clements Memorial Endowment Fund to support UK Libraries' programs in the areas of public policy, government and archival research that preserve and promote the legacy of Earle C. Clements.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FE-HdlKBETc/X5MMBayrd-I/AAAAAAAACo4/-wRyYUiYQIIT2wrNuHYJ5YCm-dULqnwRgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1245/Bess%2Band%2BTyler%2Bwith%2Bteacher_edited.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="997" data-original-width="1245" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FE-HdlKBETc/X5MMBayrd-I/AAAAAAAACo4/-wRyYUiYQIIT2wrNuHYJ5YCm-dULqnwRgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Bess%2Band%2BTyler%2Bwith%2Bteacher_edited.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bess and Tyler Abell congratulating Clements Teaching Award recipient, <br />Lynn Brewer in 2016<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">It was one of my great pleasures to become friends with Bess and Tyler and their family. I cannot thank them enough for that friendship and for their generosity to the UK Libraries. Dr. Donald A. Ritchie, Emeritus Historian of the United States Senate, and I have prepared a book manuscript tentatively entitled, "Washington's Iron Butterfly: Bess Clements Abell, An Oral History" which we hope will be published early next year.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span><span><span>The University of Kentucky has lost a special alumna.</span><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span><span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><span><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span> </span><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: 0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></p><br /><br /></div>Terry Birdwhistellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06195922368048173331noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80819687132308180.post-39775148963346120932020-10-10T08:10:00.000-07:002020-10-10T08:10:03.149-07:00UK HOMECOMING 1961: DEFEAT, FIRE, AND IMPOSTER QUEEN CANDIDATE! <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-I7ruIduuWw4/X4HJsvA-HzI/AAAAAAAACm8/7oqkxNZG_0ELakAleFXNtaPM8XOubdTnACLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="595" height="98" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-I7ruIduuWw4/X4HJsvA-HzI/AAAAAAAACm8/7oqkxNZG_0ELakAleFXNtaPM8XOubdTnACLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />Homecoming in 1961 occurred during the Thanksgiving holiday
weekend. Many UK students went home for
the holiday. For the first time, house
decorations were abandoned for floats and decorated cars in the homecoming
parade.<p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">A group of Independent male students garnered a lot of attention by
nominating Gertrude Sow for homecoming Queen.
David C. Short spoke for the Independents stressing that Miss Sow
personified the feelings that many Independents and other UK students had regarding
the many queen contests held on the campus.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">Once Gertrude Sow's nomination became public, Tom Harrington, chair of
the 1961 Homecoming Committee, quickly announced that no vote totals for
homecoming queen would be released including, any votes for Gertrude Sow! He then stressed that Miss Sow did not come
close to winning the Queen contest.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">The fire resulted from an issue
with Stoll Field. Two high school
football games had been played on Stoll Field in the rain the preceding
Thursday damaging the field almost beyond repair. Workers poured 16,000 gallons of gasoline on the turf and set it
ablaze in a desperate attempt to dry the field enough to make it playable.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">The homecoming game with Tennessee was played and unfortunately the game resulted in a
Volunteer win, 26-16.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-_nh0Pk6LMWE/X4HJ6jSFVgI/AAAAAAAACnA/x3rIzoznQtczskRLBnxGiozMjpQIrUQSgCLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="438" height="240" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-_nh0Pk6LMWE/X4HJ6jSFVgI/AAAAAAAACnA/x3rIzoznQtczskRLBnxGiozMjpQIrUQSgCLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" width="201" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Inga Riley, Homecoming Queen, 1961</div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">Twenty-nine coeds competed for the title of 1961 Homecoming Queen. The honor went to Inga Riley, a first-year
English major from Erlanger, nominated by the Men’s Residence Halls. </p><p><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></p>Terry Birdwhistellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06195922368048173331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80819687132308180.post-71861002713404261462020-09-24T09:05:00.000-07:002020-09-24T09:05:25.212-07:00KERNEL'S FIRST WOMAN SPORTS EDITOR<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GbrBhZnOoR8/X2yvy6_uhgI/AAAAAAAACmo/uj8qdskqZmMppOSJabwn_ZPij1kYAcejACLcBGAsYHQ/s546/tevis_edited.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="481" data-original-width="546" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GbrBhZnOoR8/X2yvy6_uhgI/AAAAAAAACmo/uj8qdskqZmMppOSJabwn_ZPij1kYAcejACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/tevis_edited.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Betty Tevis "interviewing" UK basketball player Bob Brannum, <br />Louisville <i>Courier-Journal</i>, March 19, 1944<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;">For the first time in
university history, a woman, Betty Tevis, served as <i>Kernel</i> sports editor in 1944. The Louisville <i>Courier-Journal</i> featured her in an article as the first
woman ever allowed into the men's basketball team dressing room to conduct
interviews with the players. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;">However,
Tevis recalled that the entire article had been staged by the UK Public
Relations Office. She said she went
along with it because she did not have “sense enough” to say “No, I’m not going
to let you exploit me this way.” She
admitted that she never had access to the men’s dressing room because that was
“unthinkable in those times.” Rather,
“they just posed me down there” while “a university photographer took the
picture” for the press release. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;">Upon
learning of the press release Dean Sarah Bennett Holmes called Tevis into her office for a conference. Holmes did not appreciate the story and the
photograph of Tevis in the men's dressing room.
In her own defense Tevis confessed to Holmes that it was not her idea and
that she "wouldn't think" of going into the men's dressing room.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;">Tevis earned an AB in Journalism degree from UK in 1946 and became the first local news editor for Radio Station WLAP in Lexington. Other journalism work took her to WLW in Cincinnati, and then to WINS and WNEW in New York City. She also wrote for <i>Movie Life</i> magazine. She later married Andrew</span><span style="background-color: white;"> <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Eckdahl working in public relations at Berea College, Eastern Kentucky University, and u</span></span><span style="background-color: white;">ntil retirement in 1987 at the University of Kentucky. She was the sister of novelist Walter Tevis. </span></span></p><div style="background-color: white;"><span face="" style="line-height: 17.12px;">Additional information about the history of women students, faculty, and staff can be found in the recently published,<i> Our Rightful Place: A History of Women at the University of Kentucky, 1880-1945</i>.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span face="" style="line-height: 17.12px;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span face="" style="line-height: 17.12px;"><a href="https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813179377/our-rightful-place/">https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813179377/our-rightful-place/<span> </span></a></span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span face="" style="line-height: 17.12px;"><br /></span></div><p><span style="font-family: times;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></span></p><div style="background-color: white;"><span face="" style="line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Use the code <b><u>FAU25</u> for 25% off. </b></span></span></div>Terry Birdwhistellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06195922368048173331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80819687132308180.post-65196113295165876792020-09-18T08:08:00.002-07:002020-09-18T08:58:44.884-07:00A CENTURY OF UK HEALTH EFFORTS<p><span style="font-family: times;">During his annual presentation to the UK University Senate this week, President Eli Capilouto, as expected, devoted considerable time to discussing the current Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on the campus.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;">Exactly one hundred years ago, then UK President Frank L. McVey also had the health of the campus on his mind. Addressing the UK Board of Trustees at its September, 1920 meeting, McVey reported on the steps he was taking regarding the health and welfare of students, staff, and faculty.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Xy39VXBamkQ/X2TMgYDjmeI/AAAAAAAACmc/-mPYkIJ-SsUvNF0CQk1C5YzVWLsoG2b_gCLcBGAsYHQ/s545/Holmes%252C%2Bp.k..jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="365" data-original-width="545" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Xy39VXBamkQ/X2TMgYDjmeI/AAAAAAAACmc/-mPYkIJ-SsUvNF0CQk1C5YzVWLsoG2b_gCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Holmes%252C%2Bp.k..jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: times;"><p>"As
previously reported ...we have received a subsidy of $11,100 from the U.S.
Department of Hygiene and Public Health. As head of the new department we
have secured the services of Dr. P.K. Holmes of Ohio Wesleyan University.
He had the degree of A.B. and in addition a medical degree from Bowden Medical
School. As assistants we have secured Dr. Ireland from Bowden Medical
School and Dr. Eva Locke a practicing physician in New York City. Miss
Tillie Greathouse, who was a nurse with the Barrow Unit in England during the war,
has been added to the Department as nurse."</p></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">"The Department will be housed
in Neville Hall. There is need of an isolation hospital or isolation
rooms for students with contagious diseases. The city hospitals have no
such provisions, but the University has a small infirmary for women.
There is a small two story brick building behind Mechanical Hall, heretofore
used as a storage room that could probably be arranged for an isolation ward for
men."</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;">Dr. Holmes
died four year later after a brief illness leaving a widow and four small
children. His widow, Sarah Bennett Holmes, successfully
raised the children and completed her undergraduate degree (1929) and a
graduate degree (1939) while working to support her family. She became
Dean of Women following the departure of Sarah Blanding in 1940. She
helped lead UK through the World War II years and advocated tirelessly for equal
rights for women students.</span></p><div style="background-color: white;"><span face="" style="line-height: 17.12px;">Additional information about the history of women students, faculty, and staff can be found in the recently published,<i> Our Rightful Place: A History of Women at the University of Kentucky, 1880-1945</i>.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span face="" style="line-height: 17.12px;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span face="" style="line-height: 17.12px;"><a href="https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813179377/our-rightful-place/">https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813179377/our-rightful-place/<span> </span></a></span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span face="" style="line-height: 17.12px;"><br /></span></div><p><span style="font-family: times;"></span></p><div style="background-color: white;"><span face="" style="line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Use the code <b><u>FAU25</u> for 25% off. </b></span></span></div>Terry Birdwhistellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06195922368048173331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80819687132308180.post-47248775172007698422020-09-11T07:17:00.004-07:002020-09-11T07:17:58.387-07:00<p> 9/11 REMEMBERED</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cyuNwfQDr-A/X1t_kRMvUhI/AAAAAAAACmQ/Qa1f3jz62sQrrXOBijfSgh4IjC9X9u2SACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/9-11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1862" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cyuNwfQDr-A/X1t_kRMvUhI/AAAAAAAACmQ/Qa1f3jz62sQrrXOBijfSgh4IjC9X9u2SACLcBGAsYHQ/w364-h400/9-11.jpg" title="Kentucky Kernel, September 12, 2001" width="364" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Like Pearl Harbor and
the Kennedy assassination, 9/11 left an indelible mark on the American
conscious and memory. No one alive that day will forget where they were
when they first heard the news.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Ironically, I was in the
Patterson School of Diplomacy offices with Ambassador Morton Holbrook
III, </span><span style="background: white; color: #404040; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">longtime Foreign Service
officer and former U.S. consul general in China. I had interviewed
Ambassador Holbrook's father in Owensboro several times about his distinguished legal career
and political experiences and I was enjoying the opportunity to meet and spend time with his
accomplished son. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="background: white; color: #404040; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ambassador
Holbrook was talking to a small group of students about careers in the Foreign
Service. Suddenly, a faculty member came into the conference room and
asked if he could turn on the television. I thought it was a very odd
request but soon realized what Americans were witnessing on their televisions
across the country. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="background: white; color: #404040; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
United States and the world would never be the same. Now, 19 years later
we pause to remember.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><br /></p>Terry Birdwhistellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06195922368048173331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80819687132308180.post-22214686209354665372020-09-07T08:20:00.002-07:002020-09-07T08:36:12.373-07:00UK WOMEN FACULTY AND THE PUSH FOR ECONOMIC EQUALITY<p><br /></p><div data-block="true" data-editor="6j4lv" data-offset-key="8ridl-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "segoe ui historic", "segoe ui", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8ridl-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IENxbA-RBkU/X1ZK1wx904I/AAAAAAAACmA/-lbhHw4-dagvYP590geRGeZrU7PqVfNAQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1157/Jewell%252C%2BFrances.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1157" data-original-width="1011" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IENxbA-RBkU/X1ZK1wx904I/AAAAAAAACmA/-lbhHw4-dagvYP590geRGeZrU7PqVfNAQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Jewell%252C%2BFrances.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Frances Jewell<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="6j4lv" data-offset-key="cdsso-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "segoe ui historic", "segoe ui", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="cdsso-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="cdsso-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">Since women began teaching at the University of Kentucky in the early 20th century, they have pushed for equal pay. Many will suggest, even though there have been great strides over the past twelve decades, that full equality has yet to be achieved.</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="6j4lv" data-offset-key="33ksp-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "segoe ui historic", "segoe ui", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="33ksp-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="33ksp-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none; transition-property: none !important;" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="6j4lv" data-offset-key="e850k-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "segoe ui historic", "segoe ui", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="e850k-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="e850k-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">For example, in 1917 Frances Jewell, an instructor in English, received half the pay of comparable male faculty in her department. This was in spite of her having earned an undergraduate degree from Vassar College and a graduate degree in English from Columbia University</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">.</span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="e850k-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="e850k-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In 1917, Professor Lehre L. Dantzler, head of the English Department, requested a salary increase for Jewell. Regarding Jewell's $600 salary, </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Dantzler noted her excellent work and recommended a $250 increase, still $250 less than her male colleague, E. U. Bradley, also an instructor in the department who earned $1,100. In Journalism, Marguerite McLaughlin received only $750 for her work as an instructor. Sarah Marshall Chorn, instructor in Modern Languages, earned $900 while Mabel Hardy Pollitt, instructor in Ancient Languages, earned $800.</span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="e850k-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="e850k-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Four years later Jewell relinquished her teaching position to marry Frank McVey, president of the university. In her new position she worked tirelessly for the University of Kentucky for the next 25 years, for free.</span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="e850k-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="e850k-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; white-space: normal;"><span face="" style="line-height: 17.12px;">Additional information about the history of women students, faculty, and staff can be found in the recently published,<i> Our Rightful Place: A History of Women at the University of Kentucky, 1880-1945</i>.</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; white-space: normal;"><span face="" style="line-height: 17.12px;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; white-space: normal;"><span face="" style="line-height: 17.12px;"><a href="https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813179377/our-rightful-place/">https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813179377/our-rightful-place/<span> </span></a></span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; white-space: normal;"><span face="" style="line-height: 17.12px;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; white-space: normal;"><span face="" style="line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Use the code <b><u>FAU25</u> for 25% off. </b></span></span></div></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="6j4lv" data-offset-key="17rq-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "segoe ui historic", "segoe ui", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><span data-offset-key="17rq-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;"><br /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="6j4lv" data-offset-key="38l2t-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "segoe ui historic", "segoe ui", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"></div>Terry Birdwhistellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06195922368048173331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80819687132308180.post-12987241707443147452020-08-28T09:47:00.000-07:002020-08-28T09:47:04.679-07:00AUSTIN LILLY, UK CLASS OF 1919<p>On a recent Saving Stories segment, WUKY's Alan Lytle and Dr. Doug Boyd, Director of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, featured UK graduate Austin Page Lilly. https://www.wuky.org/term/saving-stories#stream/0<span> </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LXjrB7ghDkk/X0kzhgTccEI/AAAAAAAAClo/2GWbMpGBtak7dmyKOkL6l_p0bu0iavqwgCLcBGAsYHQ/s527/Austin%2BLilly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="527" data-original-width="410" height="270" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LXjrB7ghDkk/X0kzhgTccEI/AAAAAAAAClo/2GWbMpGBtak7dmyKOkL6l_p0bu0iavqwgCLcBGAsYHQ/w210-h270/Austin%2BLilly.jpg" width="210" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Entering UK in 1914, a friend
influenced Austin Lilly to major in home economics, one of the fastest growing
departments in the university, rather than chemistry. Still, her new
major required that she complete four years of chemistry with the male
students. She recalled that, "Some of us were better students than
some of the men in chemistry. We weren't taking a back seat!"
Austin thought that during her student days women were well on their way to
equality within American society. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Austin Lilly remained single and spent
her career teaching at the high school and college level. When asked on a
1938 Alumni Questionnaire to give the full name of her husband or wife, Lilly
wrote in large letters across the page, “neither-nor.”</span></p>Terry Birdwhistellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06195922368048173331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80819687132308180.post-27665429862408034332020-08-26T06:16:00.005-07:002020-08-26T07:20:11.100-07:00World War II and Women's Equality at UK<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wVTtu2rnapI/X0ZfO9o4AvI/AAAAAAAAClc/qupx6Yi8rs4ZienjPDH_STF3EuKCA8AhACLcBGAsYHQ/s1697/world%2Bwar%2BII%2Bstudents.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1002" data-original-width="1697" height="242" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wVTtu2rnapI/X0ZfO9o4AvI/AAAAAAAAClc/qupx6Yi8rs4ZienjPDH_STF3EuKCA8AhACLcBGAsYHQ/w410-h242/world%2Bwar%2BII%2Bstudents.jpg" width="410" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Students Celebrate the End of World War II</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span face="">Women's Equality Day, 2020, provides an opportunity to look back at the push for women's
equality at the University of Kentucky that has spanned nearly a century and a half. For example, gains made by women during World War II on the UK campus proved to be mostly temporary.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span face="">As the war ended
"normalcy" again prevailed at UK. By the late 1940s the
percentage of women pursuing higher education at UK actually dropped in
comparison to the men. The gains women had made in leadership roles on
campus were systematically reversed both by specific rulings and by
default. Women faculty members, hired to teach "for the
duration," found it necessary to find postwar teaching jobs
elsewhere. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span face="">Lydia Roberts Fischer,
who had been hired to teach mathematics during the war, knew that without a
Ph.D. degree she could not continue permanently. Single and with two
young children, she indicated that obtaining a Ph.D. seemed all but
impossible. After leaving UK and taking substitute teaching positions in
local public schools, Fischer subsequently obtained a full-time teaching
position at Lafayette High School, where she taught until her retirement.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span face="">Little evidence exists
that women on campus openly resisted the return to pre-war practices.
Only Dean of Women Sarah Bennett Holmes is on record as vocally opposing the most obvious
discrimination. Overall, little overt protests came from either the
students or the faculty. Thus, UK women once again experienced
discriminatory rules regarding social life, uncertain academic potential and
prospects, and steep challenges to remaining on the faculty. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span face="">Changes taking place in
the first half of the 1940s could have set the stage for fundamental shifts;
instead, they existed only "for the duration." The steps
towards equality that occurred during World War II would need to be fought
again, and again.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<span face="" style="line-height: 107%;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span face="" style="line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>Additional information
about the history of women students, faculty, and staff can be found in the
recently published,<i> Our Rightful Place: A History of Women at the
University of Kentucky, 1880-1945</i>.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face="" style="line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face="" style="line-height: 107%;"><a href="https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813179377/our-rightful-place/">https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813179377/our-rightful-place/<span> </span></a></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face="" style="line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face="" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Use
the code <b><u>FAU25</u> for 25% off. </b></span><br />
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</div>Terry Birdwhistellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06195922368048173331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80819687132308180.post-91287842060432376092020-08-20T07:43:00.001-07:002020-08-20T10:09:56.689-07:00NATIONAL RADIO DAY
<p style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p><p style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: times;">The first radio station
in Kentucky began broadcasting at 7:30 p.m. on the evening of July 18, 1922,
when Credo Fitch Harris announced to all who cared or were able to listen:
"This is WHAS, the radio telephone broadcasting station of the <i>Courier-Journal</i>
and the Louisville <i>Times</i>, in Louisville, Kentucky.</span></span></p><p style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p><p style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FPeOHpHeYUA/Xz6K5UKaPEI/AAAAAAAAClI/_JS2DXfEU0IBRHEoC9lhR8aNQqLnHUi2gCLcBGAsYHQ/s890/WBKY%2BMcvey%2Bedited.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: times;"><img border="0" data-original-height="890" data-original-width="693" height="210" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FPeOHpHeYUA/Xz6K5UKaPEI/AAAAAAAAClI/_JS2DXfEU0IBRHEoC9lhR8aNQqLnHUi2gCLcBGAsYHQ/w162-h210/WBKY%2BMcvey%2Bedited.jpg" width="162" /></span></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;">UK President Frank L. McVey</span></div><p></p><p style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p><p style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: times;">WHAS and the University
of Kentucky began a radio partnership in April 1929, when UK President Dr.
Frank L. McVey announced into a radio microphone in Lexington:</span></span></p><p style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p><p style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: times;">"The University is
on the air." For the broadcast of educational programs from studios
on the Lexington campus, WHAS agreed to install all necessary equipment and
direct telephone lines; the university and the station would share equally the
transmission charges. This agreement began a partnership which attracted
national attention. Dr. McVey remained somewhat apprehensive about the whole
idea of radio but was willing to take a chance with it. He expressed his
hopes for the medium during the maiden broadcast:</span></span></p><p style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p><p style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: times;">“Life is faster, filled
with greater possibilities and subject to disasters as always. This is
the sort of universe we live in. Now comes the radio, bringing to every part of
the world the sound of the human voice from every country of the globe. No such
possibilities of good and no such opportunity for mere bunk, have been offered
to the public as through this amazing invention. The University of Kentucky
is not interested in adding to the trivial, so two important forces for
constructive effort in our state have agreed to cooperate in giving to the
radio audience, what is hoped will be interesting, stimulating and helpful.”</span></span></p><p style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p><p style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: times;">The University of
Kentucky programs aired Monday through Friday at noon, initially for fifteen
minutes and expanded by 1931 to forty-five minutes. While primarily offering
agricultural information, lectures on a variety of topics, as well as musical
presentations, were also offered. From the beginning, the school appreciated
its responsibility, and under the guidance of Elmer G. "Bromo" Sulzer
programming steadily improved. Sulzer, who began his work at the University
in public relations, energetically and successfully lobbied for the expansion
of its radio commitment. Perhaps his most unique and vital role was in the
establishment of "Listening Centers" in Eastern Kentucky during the
early 1930s to bring battery powered radios to isolated communities.</span></span></p><p style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p><p style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: times;">By the early 1940s,
radio had become much more commercial and educational programs, like those by
UK, were cancelled in favor of music and other entertainment that actually made
money. For several years UK experimented with other avenues for
educational radio ultimately establishing WBKY Radio as a campus owned and
operated FM station. In 1988 the station's call letters were changed to
WUKY.</span></span><span></span></p><p style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: times;">To read more about the history of WHAS Radio see Terry L. Birdwhistell, </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif;">WHAS Radio and the Development of Broadcasting in Kentucky, 1922-1942, </span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society</span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif;">
(1981). </span></p><p style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif;">Also see oral histories on the history of broadcasting in Kentucky in the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History. </span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif;">http://libraries.uky.edu/NunnCenter<span> </span></span></p><p style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-style: italic;"><br /></span></p><p style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></p><p style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p>Terry Birdwhistellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06195922368048173331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80819687132308180.post-15927130717168430372020-08-18T06:28:00.002-07:002020-08-26T07:21:02.468-07:00UK's First Woman Engineering Graduate<p><span face="" style="text-indent: 48px;">In 1916 Marguerite Ingels became UK's first woman engineering graduate. After college she had a long career with the Carrier Corporation retiring in 1952. Ingels excelled as a student and endured the stereotypes that came with her college major and career choice. </span></p><p><span style="text-indent: 48px;">Ingels had become interested in the process of condensation as a young girl in her hometown of Paris, Kentucky and set out to learn as much as she could about science and engineering even before entering the University of Kentucky. The </span><i style="text-indent: 48px;">Kentucky Alumnus</i><span style="text-indent: 48px;"> reported that, "Miss Ingels completed the entire four years of the Engineering course, taking her turns in the forge shops and machine shop and doing the other duties of the engineer with the rest of the `boys,' never shirking a duty, however irksome."</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nOfFbs_2M3Y/XzqZL0KdFCI/AAAAAAAACkw/jlhmXSTmevYSI2f6RrGRy1ffgAuGJ64_QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1028/Ingels.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1028" data-original-width="740" height="410" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nOfFbs_2M3Y/XzqZL0KdFCI/AAAAAAAACkw/jlhmXSTmevYSI2f6RrGRy1ffgAuGJ64_QCLcBGAsYHQ/w295-h410/Ingels.jpg" width="295" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marguerite Ingels<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Ingels was a source of fascination to many as a woman engineering major at the university. During her sophomore year, while working in the blacksmith shop along with her fellow engineering students, a reporter observed her work. He noted that "over her daintily embroidered, open-necked waist and her white skirt, she wore a very business- like leathern apron, which dropped to the top of her gunmetal pumps; pulled tightly down over a goodly quantity of wavy, dark brown hair, which persisted in peeping out, was a black sateen workman's cap." </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The attention to physical detail continued with the observation that Ingels was not of the "mannish" type. Like others the reporter felt obliged to comment whether women in historically male endeavors were "ladylike" and added that, "She is medium height (about five feet two inches) and of slender figure. She is really pretty; has large, intelligent gray eyes, the slightly tanned complexion of the outdoor girl and the long upper lip that denotes a poetical temperament and a love of ease and luxury. But this feature is given the lie by the strength of her chin and the way she closes her mouth as she works." </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Machine shop instructor Joseph Dicker tried to exempt Ingels from the heavy parts of engineering work, "but she would not hear of it." "She keeps pace with the best of her classmates and asks odds of no one. The contour that her tanned arm displays when she grasps the sledge handle shows that she can suit the deed to the will." </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">When asked whether she supported women's suffrage Ingels reportedly replied, "Yes, don't you?" However, the reporter concluded the article by asserting that Ingels seemed "too absorbed in her work to worry about Votes for Women."<o:p></o:p></p><div><br /></div><div>Additional information about the history of women students, faculty, and staff can be found in the recently published,<i> Our Rightful Place: A History of Women at the University of Kentucky, 1880-1945</i>.</div><div><br /></div><div><div><span face="" style="line-height: 17.12px;"><a href="https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813179377/our-rightful-place/">https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813179377/our-rightful-place/ </a></span></div><div><span face="" style="line-height: 17.12px;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="" style="line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: "Avenir Light"; font-size: 11pt;">Use the code <b><u>FAU25</u> for 25% off. </b></span></span></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 32px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span face="" style="line-height: 32px; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 32px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></p>Terry Birdwhistellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06195922368048173331noreply@blogger.com0