UK Libraries receives keepsake from Earle C. Clements Job Corps Center

Dean Birdwhistell and Nyra Syers-Ford

This past September the Earle C. Clements Job Corps Center in Morganfield, Kentucky celebrated the 50^th anniversary of the Job Corps.  The center opened in 1965 on the former site of Camp Breckinridge, a World War II and Korean War army training facility as the Breckinridge Job Corps Center. The center name was changed in 1980 to honor Earle C. Clements, a former governor and U.S. senator from Morganfield.  

The Earle C. Clement Job Corps Center provides a vital service to Kentucky by serving hundreds of disadvantaged youth between 16 and 24 years of age. Through the Job Corps students receive an education and career training skills to help them obtain a job and become productive citizens.

Bess Clements Abell, daughter of Senator Clements and member of the UK Libraries National Advisory Board, spoke at the anniversary luncheon.  Dean of Libraries Terry Birdwhistell also spoke at the luncheon reflecting on the life and career of Senator Clements that saw him rise from County Clerk in Union County to the second most powerful person in the U.S. Senate serving as Minority Whip to Senator Lyndon Johnson.

This week Nyra Syers-Ford, Business and Community Liaison at the Clements Job Corp Center, visited UK Libraries and presented a keepsake from the September anniversary program featuring news stories about Senator Clements and the development of the Job Corps Center.  The keepsake will be placed in the Earle C. Clements Room in the Special Collections Research Center.