Birth Dates of Famous Kentuckians

May 16, 1947 - Bob Edwards

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image from theconversationhub.com

 

 

 

 

 

From The Kentucky Encyclopedia

 

Radio news journalist Robert (Bob) Edwards, son of Joseph R. and Loretta (Fuchs) Edwards, was born in Louisville on May 16, 1947. After graduating from St. Xavier High School in 1965 he entered the University of Louisville, where he received a B.S. in commerce in 1969. He began his career in news reporting before his graduation, working as the news and program director at WHEL-AM, in New Albany, Indiana, from 1968 until 1969.   Following a brief stint in the army, 1969-71, Edwards became the news anchor at WTOP-AM, Washington, D.C., in 1972 and obtained an M.A. in communications from American University the same year. Later that year, Edwards left WTOP to become a correspondent and night editor for the Multimedia Broadcasting System, stationed in Washington. In 1974 he joined National Public Radio as an associate producer; later that year he became co- host of the network's " All Things Considered" program. In 1979, he became host of the news program " Morning Edition," a position he still held in 1992.   Edwards has produced and anchored several radio documentaries, including one on Edward R. Murrow, in 1975; on Letcher County , Kentucky, in 1976; and on Appalachian writers in 1980. He has received numerous awards for his efforts in broadcasting, including the Unity Award In Media from Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri, in 1983 and the Edward R. Murrow Award for public broadcasting in 1984. In 1985, the Louisville Forum granted him the Fleur-de- Lis award.   Edwards married Sharon Kelly on May 14, 1979. They have three children, Brean, Susannah, and Nora.   Selected Sources from UK Libraries: A voice in the box : my life in radio / Bob Edwards. PN1991.4.E23 A3 2011, Young Library - 5th Floor   Basketball in Kentucky [videorecording] : great balls of fire / producer/director, Tom Thurman ; associate producers, Robert H. Booth, Marilyn Myers ; writer, Michael Kelsay. AV-D7721. Young Media Library    Edward R. Murrow and the birth of broadcast journalism / Robert A. Edwards PN4874.M89 E38 2004, Young Library - 5th Floor

 

Birth Dates of Famous Kentuckians

May 11, 1912 – Foster Brooks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image from gravybread.wordpress.com

 

From The Kentucky Encyclopedia

Foster Brooks, comedian and radio and television announcer, was born on May 11, 1912, in Louisville, one of eight children of Edna (Megowan) and Pleasant M. Brooks. At the age of thirteen he began his radio career at WHAS in Louisville, where his mother was a performer. During the 1937 Ohio River flood, Brooks and two other WHAS announcers maintained a twenty-four-hour vigil to provide news of the disaster. Brooks later broadcast for WAVE and WKLO radio in Louisville and worked at stations in St. Louis and in Rochester and Buffalo, New York. In the 1950s he moved into television and worked for WAVE-TV in Louisville. Brooks left local broadcasting for a career as a comedian and by the 1960s he was often seen in guest roles on television series. In the role of "Lovable Lush," he appeared frequently on stage in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. In the 1970s this character became a regular on television's " Dean Martin Show" and earned him an Emmy nomination. Brooks was a regular in the television series " New Bill Cosby Show" and " Mork and Mindy." Brooks returns to his native city annually as the sponsor of a celebrity charity golf tournament. The Baseball Hall of Fame recognized Brooks as the author of the poem " Riley on the Mound."

MARY MARGARET BELL, Entry Author

 

Selected Sources from UK Libraries:

Joe Franklin's Encyclopedia of comedians.

PN2285 .F7, Young Library - Reference

More issues of the Kentucky Kernel now online

UKL's Digital Library Services has just announced that additional issues of The Kentucky Kernel are now available on ExploreUK and KDL. Microfilmed issues from September 1931 through December 1960 were digitized, sent to iArchives for processing, and now feature highlighted search hits. This expands the date range of online Kernel issues to 1915-1960.

Birth Dates of Famous Kentuckians
May 6, 1961 - George Clooney

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image from www.aspiringkennedy.com

 

From Internet Movie Database

George Timothy Clooney was born on May 6, 1961, in Lexington, Kentucky to Nina Bruce nee' Warren, a former beauty pageant queen, and Nick Clooney, a former anchorman and game show host (who was also the brother of singer Rosemary Clooney). Clooney spent most of this youth in Ohio and Kentucky, and graduated from Augusta High School. He was very active in sports such as basketball and baseball, and tried out for the Cincinatti Reds, but was not offered a contract.

After his cousin 'Miguel Ferrer' got him a small part in a feature film, Clooney began to pursue acting. His first major role was on the sitcom "E/R" (1984) as Ace. More roles soon followed, including George Burnett, the handsome handyman on "The Facts of Life" (1979); Booker Brooks, a supervisor on "Roseanne" (1988); and Detective James Falconer on "Sisters" (1991). Clooney had his breakthrough when he was cast as Dr. Doug Ross on the award-winning drama series "ER" (1994), opposite Anthony Edwards, Noah Wyle, and Julianna Margulies.

While filming "ER", Clooney starred in a number of high profile film roles, such as Robert Rodriguez's From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), and One Fine Day (1996), opposite Michelle Pfeiffer. In 1997, Clooney took on the role of Batman in Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin (1997). The film was a moderate success in the box office, but was slammed by critics, notably for the nipple-laden Bat suit. Clooney went on to star in Steven Soderbergh's Out of Sight (1998), Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line (1998), and David O. Russell's Three Kings (1999).

In 1999, Clooney left "ER" (though he would return for the season finale) and appeared in a number of films including O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), The Perfect Storm (2000), and Ocean's Eleven (2001). Collaborating once again with Steven Soderbergh, Ocean's Eleven received critical acclaim, earned more than $450 million in the box office, and spawned two sequels: Ocean's Twelve (2004) and Ocean's Thirteen (2007).

In 2002, Clooney made his directorial debut with Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), an adaptation of TV producer Chuck Barris's autobiography. This was the first film under the banner of Section Eight Productions, a production company he founded with Steven Soderbergh. The company also produced many acclaimed films including Far from Heaven (2002), Syriana (2005), A Scanner Darkly (2006), and Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005). Clooney won his first Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in Syriana, and was nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for Good Night, and Good Luck.

In 2006, Section Eight was shut down so that Soderbergh could concentrate on directing, and Clooney founded a new production company, Smokehouse Productions, with his friend and long-time business partner, Grant Heslov.

Clooney went on to produce and star in Michael Clayton (2007) (which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor), directed and starred in Leatherheads (2008), and took leading roles in Burn After Reading (2008), The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009), Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), and Jason Reitman's Up in the Air (2009/I). Clooney received critical acclaim his performance in Up in the Air and was nominated for several awards including a Golden Globe and Academy Award. He didn't win that year, but took home both Best Actor awards (as well as countless nominations) for his role as a father who finds out his wife was unfaithful as she lay in a coma in Alexander Payne's The Descendants (2011).

Throughout his career, Clooney has been heralded for his political activism and humanitarian work. He has served as one of the United Nations Messengers of Peace since 2008, has been an advocate for the Darfur conflict, and organized the Hope for Haiti telethon, to raise money for the victims of the 2010 earthquake. In March of 2012, Clooney was arrested for civil disobedience while protesting at the Sudanese embassy in Washington, D.C.

Clooney was married to actress Talia Balsam, from 1989 until 1993. After their divorce, he swore he would never marry again. Michelle Pfeiffer and Nicole Kidman bet him $10,000 that he would have children by the age of 40, and sent him a check shortly after his birthday. Clooney returned the funds and bet double of nothing he wouldn't have children by the age of 50. Although he has remained a consummate bachelor, Clooney has had many highly publicized relationships, most recently with former WWE wrestler Stacy Keibler.

 

Selected Sources from UK Libraries:

 

Syriana [videorecording] / Warner Bros. Pictures presents in association with Participant Productions a 4M Film, a Section Eight production ; produced by Jennifer Fox, Michael Nozik, Georgia Kacandes ; written and directed by Stephen Gaghan.

AV-D5948, Young Media Library

 

O brother, where art thou? [videorecording] / Touchstone Pictures and Universal Pictures present in association with Studio Canal ; a Working Title production ; produced by Ethan Coen ; written by Ethan Coen & Joel Coen ; directed by Joel Coen.

AV-D2978, Young Media Library

 

Perfect storm [videorecording] / Warner Bros. Pictures presents a Baltimore Spring Creek Pictures production ; in association with Radiant Productions ; screenplay by Bill Wittliff ; produced by Paula Weinstein, Wolfgang Petersen and Gail Katz ; directed

AV-D3326, Young Media Library

Birth Dates of Famous Kentuckians

May 3, 1922 - Harry Caudill

Image from archives.nku.edu


From The Kentucky Encyclopedia

Appalachian historian and social critic, Harry Monroe Caudill was born May 3, 1922, in Letcher County, Kentucky, the son of Cro Carr and Martha Victoria (Blair) Caudill, both of Scotch-Irish descent. After graduating from Whitesburg High School in 1941, Caudill joined the U.S. Army and was wounded in action during World War II. He graduated from the University of Kentucky Law School in 1948. Returning to Whitesburg, Caudill in 1954 was elected to the first of three terms in the state House of Representatives, a largely frustrating experience that led to the article " How an Election Was Bought and Sold" in the October 1960 issue of Harper's Magazine. The byline read "A Kentucky Legislator," and the article launched Caudill's career as a writer.

With his first book, Night Comes to the Cumberlands (1963), Caudill in effect made history by writing it. The book -- "The story of how this rich and beautiful land was changed into an ugly, poverty-ridden place of desolation," wrote author Harriette Arnow -- turned the nation's eyes toward Kentucky's hills. It described a sort of corporate feudalism in which coal operators bullied a neglected people through the use of the broad form deed to protect the mineral ownership of entrepreneurs. Caudill's book was generally credited with sparking the creation in 1964 of the Appalachian Regional Commission , a federal agency to assist Kentucky and twelve other states in the Appalachian Mountains. Some criticized the work's lack of footnotes or disagreed with its theory that Appalachia was populated by the "wretched outcasts" of British prisons, but Caudill himself emerged as a symbol of eastern Kentucky. For the next three or four years, Appalachia became a cause celebre, bringing hundreds of volunteers, along with writers and government agencies, into the mountains.

Caudill became a beacon for the area's conservationists. He represented a roadblock for coal operators such as William Sturgill of Lexington, who maintained that Caudill did not support the economy or provide job opportunity, but rather made personal gain from advertising worldwide the misfortunes of his friends and neighbors. Nationally, Caudill became known as an eloquent and courageous spokesman for an exploited region and its people. He helped organize grass-roots opposition to strip mining and the broad form deed and fought them in the courts, in magazine and newspaper articles, in letters and speeches and appearances before legislative committees. He gained in the process a national reputation, many enemies, and some influential friends. Historian Thomas D. Clark has spoken of Caudill's voice as one of the most important in Kentucky's history.

After Night Comes to the Cumberlands, Caudill wrote nine books, fifty magazine articles, and eighty newspaper articles and he made hundreds of speeches. In My Land is Dying (1971), he pleaded for a change in economic priorities to prevent the rest of the country from being strip-mined; The Watches of the Night (1976) updated his first book to include the 1974 coal boom; Theirs Be the Power (1983) is the story of coal barons and capitalists, including prominent Kentuckians, who industrialized eastern Kentucky and transformed its mineral wealth into personal fortunes.

A lawyer for twenty-eight years, Caudill retired and became a professor of history at the University of Kentucky between 1977 and 1985. During that time he wrote The Mountains, the Miner and the Lord (1980), lively stories he collected while practicing law.

Caudill married Anne Frye of Cynthiana, Kentucky, in 1946. They had three children, James, Diana, and Harry. Caudill died on November 29, 1990, and was buried in the Battle Grove Cemetery in Cynthiana.

LEE MUELLER, Entry Author

 

Selected Sources from UK Libraries:

Night comes to the Cumberlands, a biography of a depressed area. With a foreword by Stewart L. Udall.

HC107.K4 C3, Young Library - 4th Floor
 

Slender is the thread : tales from a country law office / Harry M. Caudill.

K184 .C38 1987, Young Library - 4th Floor
 

Mountain, the miner, and the Lord, and other tales from a country law office / Harry M. Caudill.

F457.L48 C38, Young Library - 4th Floor

Birth Dates of Famous Kentuckians

 

May 1, 1940 - Bobbie Ann Mason

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Image from kdl.kyvl.org

 

 

 

 

 

From The Kentucky Encyclopedia

 

Bobbie Ann Mason, author of short stories and novels, was born May 1, 1940, in Mayfield, Kentucky, the daughter of Wilburn and Bernice Christie (Lee) Mason, and grew up on the family's fifty-four-acre dairy farm. She received an A.B. in English from the University of Kentucky in 1962, an M.A. from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1966, and a Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut in 1972.   While still in college, Mason wrote for the Mayfield Messenger, and after college she contributed to popular magazines such as Movie Stars, Movie Life, and T.V. Star Parade in New York City. She taught English at Mansfield State College in Pennsylvania from 1972 to 1979. Her first books were nonfiction: Nabokov's Garden: a Nature Guide to Ada (1974), and The Girl Sleuth: a Feminist Guide to the Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew, and their Sisters (1975). Mason's first published short story appeared in the New Yorker in 1980, and her work soon began appearing in other national magazines. Shiloh And Other Stories (1982) and Love Life (1989) are collections of short stories. Her stories have appeared regularly in the New Yorker, Paris Review, North American Review, Redbook, Atlantic, Mother Jones, Southern Magazine, and Harper's, and in the annual volumes of Houghton Mifflin's Best American Short Stories.   Mason's first novel, In Country (1985), is about teenager Samantha Hughes's obsessive search to know her father, killed in Vietnam before she was born. The characters in her next novel, Spence + Lila (1988), are a farm couple who, after more than forty years of married life, cope with the problems of old age and death.   The scene of most of Mason's fiction is her native western Kentucky. She underscored the importance of her Kentucky background and its influence on her fiction in an interview with Mervyn Rothstein: "I think it's a matter of temperament and heredity and region. I think the style very much grows out of the place I come from." In 1988, when In Country was made into a motion picture by Warner Brothers, much of the filming was done near Paducah. A writer for the New York Review Of Books (December 16, 1982) called Mason "one of those rare writers who, by concentrating their attention on a few square miles of native turf, are able to open up new and surprisingly wide worlds for the delighted reader."   In 1969 Mason married Roger B. Rawlings, a writer and magazine editor; they live in Anderson County. WADE HALL, Entry Author       Selected Sources from UK Libraries:    Clear Springs : a memoir / Bobbie Ann Mason. PS3563.A7877 Z77 1999, Young Library - 5th Floor   In country : a novel / by Bobbie Ann Mason. PS3563.A7877 I5 1985, Young Library – 5th Floor   Conversations with Kentucky writers / L. Elisabeth Beattie, editor ; photographs by Susan Lippman ; with a foreword by Wade Hall. PS266.K4 C66 1996, Young Library – 5th Floor

Birth Dates of Famous Kentuckians

 

April 26, 1785 - John James Audubon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image from www.arthistoryimages. 

 

 

From The Kentucky Encyclopedia
 

America's foremost naturalist and illustrator of birds, John James Audubon was born April 26, 1785, in St. Dominque (now Haiti) on Les Cayes, his father's plantation. His father, Jean Audubon, was a French naval officer, merchant, and slave trader who had served under General LaFayette in the American Revolutionary War. Audubon's natural mother is thought to have been Jeanne Rabbine, his father's mistress, who died shortly after his birth. Audubon grew up in France under the affectionate care of his father's wife, Anne Moynette Audubon. He preferred roaming the woods and sketching birds to academic studies.

In 1803 Audubon arrived in America to manage his father's farm in Norristown, Pennsylvania. He led an active social life, with enough time to study and draw the abundant birds of his new country. His outgoing nature and accomplishments as a musician and dancer attracted Lucy Bakewell, daughter of a neighbor, who became his wife on April 5, 1808. 

Audubon and Ferdinand Rozier, his fellow-Frenchman and business partner, had left Pennsylvania in 1807 to become storekeepers in Louisville. Both were aware of the frontier town's reputation as a gathering point for trappers and traders. The following year, Audubon brought his new bride to "temporary" quarters in Louisville's Indian Queen Hotel, which was to be their home for more than two years. In 1809 their first son, Victor Gifford, was born. As before, Audubon spent a great deal of his time in the woods, observing and drawing birds. 

By 1810 Audubon's collection of bird portraits had grown to more than two hundred drawings. At that time, noted Scottish ornithologist Alexander Wilson arrived in Louisville to draw birds and to sell subscriptions to a published portfolio of his works. After seeing Wilson's drawings, Audubon confided that he, too, had been working for years in an effort to draw all the birds of America. Until that meeting, he had considered his efforts merely a personal pastime. However, he could see that his own drawings were superior to Wilson's. 

Later that year, believing more profits could be made where there was less competition, Rozier convinced Audubon to move their business 120 miles downriver to Henderson, Kentucky. Along with Rozier, the Audubon family moved into a log cabin, setting up their store in the front room. By 1811 the ambitious Rozier suggested moving farther west, to the Mississippi River outpost of St. Genevieve, Missouri. After seeing St. Genevieve, Audubon decided that it lacked potential, and he and Rozier amicably agreed to end their partnership. 

The first years in Henderson brought the Audubons relative prosperity and happiness. A second son, John Woodhouse, was born there on November 30, 1812. Audubon took advantage of frequent business trips to increase the number of drawings in his portfolio. Victor and John took an interest in their father's avocation, later becoming accomplished artists and playing roles in the successful completion and publication of Audubon's books on birds. 

By 1818 Audubon had fallen into serious debt. Embittered by his misfortunes and grieving at the death of his two-year-old daughter, Lucy, in 1817, Audubon sold the family's belongings and they returned to Louisville, where he earned his living by painting portraits and giving art lessons. He was jailed briefly for his debts, and he filed for bankruptcy in the panic of 1819. The final sad note of his time in Kentucky came with the birth and death, in Louisville, of his daughter Rosa, who was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave. Audubon and his family left Kentucky in 1819, moving first to Ohio, where he became a taxidermist for Daniel Drake 's new Western Museum in Cincinnati, and in 1820 to Louisiana. 

Audubon's four-volume Birds Of America was published in 1827-38, ensuring his place in history. His artistic renderings of America's birds and animals are unsurpassed in their accuracy and beauty. The work was followed by the five-volume The Viviparous Quadrupeds Of America (1842-45) and portfolios (1846-54). Audubon also wrote Ornithological Biography (1831-39), the text of the fifth volume of Birds Of America, and Synopsis Of Birds Of North America (1839), which cataloged the birds. 

Audubon spent several years of increasing senility. He died on January 27, 1851, at Minnie's Land, his home on the Hudson River (now Audubon Park in New York City), and he was buried there. 

Many of Audubon's engravings, paintings, personal artifacts, and one of the few remaining complete, four-volume sets of the double-elephant Birds Of America portfolios are on view at the John James Audubon Memorial Museum at Audubon State Park, Henderson, Kentucky.
CONSTANCE ALEXANDER ROY DAVIS, Entry Author



Selected Sources from UK Libraries:

John James Audubon papers.
87M4, Special Collections Library - Manuscripts Collection

The original water-color paintings by John James Audubon for The birds of America : reproduced in color for the first time from the collection at the New York Historical Society / introd. By Marshall B. Davidson.
598.297 Au29or, Special Collections Library - Oversize Collection

Journal of John James Audubon made during his trip to New Orleans in 1820-1821, edited by Howard Corning, foreword by Ruthven Deane.
B Au29j 1929a, Special Collections Library - Biography Collection