Birth Dates of Notable Kentuckians: March 30, 1917 - Clay Lancaster

 

William Morton House. Note on Slide: Sketch, North Limestone.
Part of Clay Lancaster Slide Collection. University of Kentucky

From The Kentucky Encyclopedia -

Clay Lancaster, architectural historian, a native of Lexington, Kentucky, was born on March 30, 1917, to Della (Pigg) and J.W. Lancaster, Jr. In 1936, he spent a half year at the Art Students' League of New York City. He then earned an A.B. (1938) and an M.A. (1939) from the University of Kentucky. In 1943 Lancaster returned to New York to become the Ware librarian of the Avery Library at Columbia University, where he studied Asian cultures. He taught at Columbia, Vassar College, New York City's Cooper Union, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and New York University.

Lancaster received two Guggenheim Fellowships -- the first, in 1954-55, for research for the book The Japanese Influence in America (1963), and the second, in 1963-64, for research on Kentucky architecture, the basis of numerous publications. In 1971 Lancaster moved to Nantucket, Massachusetts, where he devoted himself exclusively to writing. Books of this period include The Architecture of Historic Nantucket (1972), The Far Out Island Railroad (1972), and Nantucket in the Nineteenth Century (1979). In 1978 Lancaster returned to Kentucky to live at Warwick, on the Kentucky River , in Mercer County. He soon completed Vestiges of the Venerable City (1978) and Eutaw -- The Builders and Architecture of an Ante-Bellum Southern Town (1979). He taught at Transylvania University and the University of Kentucky and was the Morgan professor at the University of Louisville in 1983.

Lancaster has written several children's books, including The Periwinkle Steamboat (1961), Michiko, or Mrs. Belmont's Brownstone on Brooklyn Heights (1965), The Flight of the Periwinkle (1987), The Toy Room (1988), and The Runaway Prince (1990). His scholarly publications include Architectural Follies in America (1960), Old Brooklyn Heights, New York's First Suburb (1961), Ante Bellum Houses of the Bluegrass (1961), Victorian Houses: A Treasury of Lesser Known Examples (1973), The American Bungalow, 1880-1930 (1985), and more than a hundred articles.

WILLIAM B. SCOTT, JR. , Entry Author

Selected Sources from UK Libraries:

Birchfield, J., & University Press of Kentucky. (2007). Clay Lancaster's Kentucky : Architectural photographs of a preservation pioneer. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.

Young Library   Books - 5th Floor   TR659 .B56 2007

Byron, J., Lancaster, C., & Museum of the City of New York. (1976). New York interiors at the turn of the century : In 131 photographs by Joseph Byron from the Byron Collection of the Museum of the City of New York. New York: Dover Publications.

Design Library   Book Stacks   TR620 .B97 1976

Lancaster, C., & Lexington-Fayette County Historic Commission. (1978). Vestiges of the venerable city : A chronicle of Lexington, Kentucky, its architectural development and survey of its early streets and antiquities. Lexington, Ky.]: Lexington-Fayette County Historic Commission.

Design Library   Reserves   NA 735.L47 L36

Birth Dates of Notable Kentuckians: March 28, 1905 - Janice Holt Giles

Image from the Janice Holt Giles & Henry Giles Society




From The Kentucky Encyclopedia -

Janice (Holt) Giles, novelist, was born March 28, 1905, in Altus, Arkansas, the daughter of John Albert and Lucy (McGraw) Holt, both schoolteachers. She grew up in Arkansas and Oklahoma, where her parents taught in the old Choctaw Nation. She attended the University of Arkansas and Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. In 1923 she married Otto Jackson Moore, by whom she had a daughter, Elizabeth. She was divorced from Moore in 1939.

In 1941 Janice Holt moved to Kentucky, where she worked for a Frankfort church and the Louisville Presbyterian Seminary. In the summer of 1943, on a bus trip to Texas to visit her aunt, she met Henry Giles, a soldier, when he boarded the bus in Bowling Green, Kentucky. They were married in 1945. In 1949, while she was writing Miss Willie (1951), Janice and Henry moved to a small farm near his boyhood home, close to Knifley in Adair County , Kentucky. After publication of her first novel, The Enduring Hills (1950), Giles became a free-lance writer and full-time novelist, publishing twenty-four books.

The majority of her published works are novels, which fall into three distinct groups: the Piney Ridge trilogy -- The Enduring Hills, Miss Willie (1951), and Tara's Healing (1952); the Kentucky trilogy -- The Kentuckians (1953), Hannah Fowler (1956), and The Believers (1957); and the novels of Arkansas and the western frontier, including Johnny Osage (1960), Savanna (1961), Voyage To Santa Fe (1962), and Six-Horse Hitch (1969). The novels and nonfiction of the Piney Ridge period reflect the extent of her acclimation to her husband's native area. Her historical novels are well researched, historically accurate, and insightful works about the founding and early settlement of Kentucky. After 1958, her novels about the frontier of her native Arkansas and Oklahoma took the descendants of her Kentucky characters into an even newer land. Giles has been critically overlooked, perhaps because of her prolific output, as well as her appeal to popular tastes.

Giles died on June 1, 1979, and was buried in Caldwell Chapel Cemetery, near her home in Adair County.

BONNIE JEAN COX, Entry Author  

Selected Sources from UK Libraries:

Stuart, D., & University Press of Kentucky. (1998). Janice Holt Giles : A writer's life. Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky.

Young Library   Books - 5th Floor   PS3513.I4628 Z88 1998 

Giles, H., Phillips, P., & Giles, Janice Holt. (1995). A little better than plumb : The biography of a house. Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky.

Young Library   Books - 4th Floor   F457.A3 G55 1995 

Giles, J. (1978). Voyage to Santa Fe. New York: Avon Books.
Young Library   Books - 4th Floor   G393v 1978

Birth Dates of Notable Kentuckians: March 27, 1868 - Patty Smith Hill

Image from www.kdp.org




From The Kentucky Encyclopedia -
Patty Smith Hill, educator, was born in Anchorage, Kentucky, on March 27, 1868, to William Wallace and Martha Jane (Smith) Hill. She lived at the Anchorage Female Seminary that her father ran until 1874, when the family moved to Fulton, Missouri. After her father's death in 1878, Hill moved to Louisville, where she attended first the public schools and then the Louisville Collegiate Institute in 1882. Exposure to new theories on the education of preprimary school children inspired her to become an educator. In 1887 she graduated from the first kindergarten training school in Louisville, which opened under Steve Holcombe in 1886. Hill experimented with the idea that children should be placed in settings that stimulated creative thought and openness, and she believed that programs should be adjusted to fit the child. She used music, poetry, stories, and plays to instruct children.

Though criticized, her ideas were of interest to educators all over the world, including John Dewey and G. Stanley Hall, who came to Louisville to study preprimary education. She spoke before the Louisville Education Association in 1900 on " Education Through Play," and by 1900 nine Louisville public schools were offering kindergarten programs. In 1905 Hill left Louisville to study at Columbia University, where she worked at the Speyer School Experimental Playroom (later called the Horace Mann Kindergarten). In 1929 she received an honorary doctor of letters degree for her work as head of the Kindergarten Association. She may be best remembered for a song she wrote with her sister Mildred J. Hill in 1893, entitled " Good Morning To You," the melody of which was later used for the song " Happy Birthday."

Hill died in New York City on May 25, 1946, and was buried in Louisville's Cave Hill Cemetery.

Selected Sources from UK Libraries:

Hill, Mildred J., Patty Smith Byers, Margaret. Bryan, Byers, Margaret, and Bryan, Anna E. Song Stories : For the Kindergarten. New Ed., Rev., Illustrated and Enlarged.. ed. Chicago: C. F. Summy, 1896. Print.

LB1177 .H55 1896, Special Collections Research Center

Fediaevskaia, Vera Mikhailovna, and Patty Smith Hill. Nursery School and Parent Education in Soviet Russia. New York: E.P. Dutton &, 1936. Print.

LB1140 .F4, Remote Storage

Hill, Patty Smith. Experimental Studies in Kindergarten Theory and Practice. New York: Teachers College, Columbia U, 1914. Print.

LB1169 .H53, Remote Storage

Birth Dates of Notable Kentuckians: March 26, 1880 - Duncan Hines

Image from jerryhines.com


From The Kentucky Encyclopedia -
Duncan Hines, a food critic who marketed a line of processed foods under his name, was born to Edward L. and Cornelia (Duncan) Hines at Bowling Green, Kentucky, on March 26, 1880. In 1905 he entered the printing and advertising business. He married Florence Chaffin, and they lived in Chicago. The couple traveled extensively in the United States and at Christmas 1935 mailed a list of "superior eating places" to their friends. The responses to the list prompted the 1936 publication of Adventures In Good Eating, a guide to the most highly recommended U.S. restaurants. After a companion work, Lodging For A Night, was published in 1938, the sign "Recommended by Duncan Hines" became a guide for travelers. Hines also published two cookbooks.

In 1949 Hines joined Roy H. Park in establishing the Hines-Park Foods Company, which produced and sold food under the Duncan Hines label. They also founded the Duncan Hines Institute, which conducted food research and granted scholarships to students in hotel and restaurant management. In 1956 Hines- Park Foods was acquired by the Proctor and Gamble Company of Cincinnati.

Hines's wife died in 1939; he married Clara Wright Nahm in 1946. Hines died in Bowling Green on March 15, 1959, and was buried there.

Selected Sources from UK Libraries:

Hatchett, Louis. Duncan Hines : The Man behind the Cake Mix. 1st ed. Macon, Ga.: Mercer UP, 2001. Print.
HC102.5.H56 H38 2001, Young Library - 4th Floor

Schwartz, David M. Duncan Hines : He Made Gastronomes out of Motorists. 1984. Print.
TX907.H5 S340 1984, Special Collections Research Center

Hines, Duncan, and Louis. Hatchett. Adventures in Good Cooking and the Art of Carving in the Home. 1st ed. Macon: Mercer UP, 2002. Print.
TX715 .H7226 2002, Special Collections Research Center

Birth Dates of Notable Kentuckians: March 23, 1865 - Madison Julius Cawein

Image from en.wikipedia.org

From The Kentucky Encyclopedia –

Madison Julius Cawein, poet, was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on March 23, 1865, fifth child of William and Christiana (Stelsly) Cawein. His father, who had emigrated from Germany in the 1840s, earned his living in Louisville as a confectioner and herbalist. His mother, daughter of German immigrants, was a spiritualist. In 1886 Cawein graduated from Louisville's Male High School and became assistant cashier at the Newmarket poolroom, where he remained until 1892, writing at night and in his spare time and paying for publication of his books. His poetic career was launched in 1887 when William Dean Howells favorably reviewed his first book, Blooms of the Berry. Thirty- six others followed, including Kentucky Poems (1902), solicited by the English critic Edmund Gosse, and a five-volume collected edition in 1907. Cawein's poetry shows the naturalist's lore he learned from his father and the creative imagination of his spiritualist mother. Literary influences on his work were the English poets, especially Spenser, Keats, Shelley, and Tennyson, and the German poets Goethe, Heine, and Geibel, a collection of whose works he translated ( The White Snake, 1895).

Cawein's nature poetry preserves, like the paintings of Carl Brenner , a landscape that has all but disappeared. Accurate in terms of flora and fauna, the poems are yet visionary. One of them, " The Wasteland" ( Minions of the Moon, 1913), which describes a barren site and an old man, looks forward to the landscape of loss that T.S. Eliot made real for his generation.

On June 4, 1903, Cawein married Gertrude Foster McKelvey; they had one child, Preston Hamilton (whose name was later changed to Madison Cawein II). Cawein died of an apoplectic attack on December 8, 1914, and was buried in Louisville's Cave Hill Cemetery.

See 

Otto A. Rothert, The Story of a Poet: Madison Cawein (Louisville1921)

John Rutledge, "Madison Cawein as an Exponent of German Culture," FCHQ 51 (Jan. 1977): 5-16.

MADELINE COVI, Entry Author

Selected Sources from UK Libraries:

Cawein, Madison Julius. Minions of the Moon; a Little Book of Song and Story. Cincinnati: Stewart & Kidd, 1913. SOLINET/ASERL Cooperative Microfilming Project (NEH PS-20317) ; SOL MN04382.05 KUK. Web.

811 C317mi, Special Collections Research Center

Cawein, Madison Julius. The Garden of Dreams. Louisville, Ky.: John P. Morton, 1896. Beyond the Shelf, Serving Historic Kentuckiana through Virtual Access (IMLS LG-03-02-0012-02) ; B92-188-30608406. Web.

811 C317ga, Special Collections Research Center

Cawein, Madison Julius. The Poet and Nature and The Morning Road. Louisville, Ky.: John P. Morton & Incorporated, 1914. Print.

811 C317pn, Special Collections Research Center

Birth Dates of Notable Kentuckians: March 23, 1865 - Paul Sawyier

 

Image from paulsawyiergalleries.com







From The Kentucky Encyclopedia -
Paul Sawyier, painter, son of Nathaniel J. and Ellen (Wingate) Sawyier, was born on March 23, 1865, at Table Rock Farm in Madison County, Ohio. His father and other family members were amateur artists; his sister Natalie became a professional painter. In 1870 the family moved to Frankfort, Kentucky, the childhood home of both Sawyier's parents. There Sawyier attended Second Street Elementary School and the Dudley Institute, an Episcopal school. His father employed Elizabeth Hutchins, a Cincinnati artist, to give art lessons to his children.

In 1884-85 Sawyier attended the Cincinnati Art Academy, where he studied under Kentucky artist Thomas S. Noble . During 1885-86 Sawyier supported himself with his portraits in crayon. In August 1886, at the request of his father, he returned to Frankfort to work as a hemp salesman for the Kentucky River Mill. By the spring of 1887, Sawyier had left this job to paint river scenes and landscapes around the capital. During 1887-88 he made six copperplate etchings of a Frankfort landmark, the Old Covered Bridge series. The prints became very popular when the old bridge was closed in December 1893.

In the fall of 1889, Sawyier moved to New York City, where he lived with his sister Lillian and her family. He enrolled in the Arts Students League under the tutelage of William Merritt Chase, studying watercolor. In 1890 he returned to Cincinnati to study under Kentucky artist Frank Duveneck, a well- known portrait painter in oils. The next year Sawyier moved to Frankfort, where he concentrated on landscape painting, including views of the Kentucky River and its tributaries Benson and Elkhorn creeks, in a variety of media -- pastels, oil, copperplate etchings, and his favorite, watercolor. Sawyier relied heavily on the use of photographs as models, and he shared a studio with the photographer Henry G. Mattern.

In 1908 Sawyier bought a houseboat on the Kentucky River , which served as both his studio and his home while he traveled the river, stopping along the way to work at various places, including Highbridge and Camp Nelson in Jessamine County. He visited Frankfort , Lexington, Danville, and Cincinnati to sell his works. In the fall of 1913, Sawyier moved to Brooklyn, New York, where he again lived with his sister. In 1914 he was commissioned to paint for New York art dealer Edward Jackson. He moved to High Mount, New York, in the Catskill Mountains in 1915 and in 1916 to neighboring Fleischmann, New York.

Sawyier's work are best known in the state of Kentucky. Most of his paintings and etchings are not dated, and because he kept no diary it has been almost impossible to date them. Some of his most popular prints are Wapping Street Fountain, The Old Capitol, Winter In Kentucky, A Rainy Day In Frankfort, Kentucky River Scene, Kentucky Arsenal, and Old Covered Bridge. Sawyier died on November 5, 1917, and was buried in Fleischmann, New York. His remains were moved to Frankfort Cemetery in June 1923.

Selected Sources from UK Libraries:

Jones, Arthur Frederick. The Art of Paul Sawyier. Lexington: U of Kentucky, 1976. Print.
ND237.S34 J66 1976, Fine Arts Library

Coffey, William Donald. Paul Sawyier, Kentucky Artist : An Historical Chronology of His Life, Art, Friends and times from Old Frankfort to the Catskills. 1st ed. Frankfort, KY: Frankfort Heritage, 2010. Print.
ND237.S34 C64 2010, Special Collections Research Center - Room 019, Section 1-Shelf 1-Tray 3

Sawyier, Paul. Paul Sawyier Letters, 1910-1916. (1910). Print.
52M48, Special Collections Research Center - Manuscript Vertical Files

Birth Dates of Notable Kentuckians: March 18, 1877 - Edgar Cayce

Image from edgarcaycebeacon.wordpress.com

From the Kentucky Encyclopedia -

Edgar Cayce, clairvoyant and psychic diagnostician, was born on March 18, 1877, to Leslie B. and Carrie (Major) Cayce in Beverly, seven miles south of Hopkinsville, Kentucky. He attended Hopkinsville schools and from 1894 worked in Hopkinsville hardware, dry-goods, and bookstores before going to Louisville to work for J.P. Morgan & Co. bookstore in 1898. In 1900, after studying briefly at a Louisville business college, he joined his father in selling insurance for Woodmen of the World in Hopkinsville. In 1902, he found work as a photographer in Bowling Green , where he entered into a partnership, Cayce Studio, with Frank J. Potter in 1904; after losing two studios to fire, he moved to Gadsden, Alabama, and then back to Hopkinsville to establish a studio there. Photography seems to have remained his principal occupation until about 1914, but during these years his reputation as a clairvoyant began to grow and to spread beyond Hopkinsville . In 1910, a Hopkinsville physician, Wesley H. Ketchum, spoke about Cayce's unusual powers at a meeting of the American Association of Clinical Research in Boston.

Cayce is described as a quiet, religious man, with none of the eccentricities sometimes associated with psychic practitioners. According to contemporary accounts, Cayce, when in a trance and informed of the name or description of the subject (who need not be present), spoke knowledgeably of medical conditions and suggested treatments that included medications, spinal manipulations, electrotherapies, special diets, and herbs. He frequently used medical and pharmaceutical terms unfamiliar to the waking Cayce, and was afterward not conscious of a single word he had said while in the trance state. Although he received little attention from the medical profession, he was consulted at times by physicians.

In 1912, Cayce again left Hopkinsville for Alabama and settled in Selma, where he concentrated on photography. Two years later he traveled to Lexington, Kentucky, to give a "reading" for the Delaney family; there he met David Kahn, who would become his principal supporter. Cayce moved to Dayton, Ohio, in 1923, and two years later settled in Virginia Beach, Virginia, for the rest of his life. With others, Kahn organized the Association of National Investigators in 1927 in Virginia Beach. Although Cayce himself is said to have sought no financial gain from his abilities, in 1928 the Association was able to build the Cayce Hospital to accommodate Cayce's efforts and to engage in general psychic research. They lost the hospital during the Great Depression. Kahn and other Cayce supporters reorganized in 1931 and created the Association for Research and Enlightenment, which operated out of Cayce's home. In 1956, some years after Cayce's death, the associates bought back the Cayce Hospital to continue psychic research; the Virginia Beach operation of the Edgar Cayce Foundation in 1992 encompassed a city block and had a $7- million annual budget.

It is estimated that Cayce gave over 16,000 psychic readings between 1901 and 1944. There are copies of 14,263 readings, going back to 1910, in the Edgar Cayce Foundation archives; most were recorded directly or compiled from older records by Gladys Davis, who became Cayce's secretary in 1923. In the early 1980s, it was reported that several physician-staffed Cayce clinics were in operation in various locations, using treatment plans derived from Cayce's records.

Cayce was married on June 17, 1903, in Hopkinsville to the former Gertrude Evans, who closely assisted him in his endeavors. They had three sons: Milton Porter, who died in infancy, Hugh Lynn, and Edgar Evans. Cayce died in his home in Virginia Beach on January 3, 1945, and his wife died April 1, 1945. They are buried in Riverside Cemetery in Hopkinsville.

Selected Sources from UK Libraries:

Sugrue, Thomas. There Is a River; the Story of Edgar Cayce. New York: Holt, 1942. Print.

BF1027.C3 S8 1945, Young Library -- Books - 3rd Floor

 

Johnson, K. Paul, and NetLibrary, Inc. Edgar Cayce in Context the Readings, Truth and Fiction. Albany, N.Y.: State U of New York, 1998. Print. SUNY Ser. in Western Esoteric Traditions.

Netlibrary E-book - See Internet Resources

 

Cayce, Edgar, and A. Robert Smith. My Life as a Seer : The Lost Memoirs. New York: St. Martin's, 1999. Print.

BF1027.C3 A3 1999, Young Library -- Books - 3rd Floor

 

Birth Dates of Notable Kentuckians: March 17, 1917 - Lily May Ledford

Image from naturalbridgeredrivergorge.com



From The Kentucky Encyclopedia -
Lily May Ledford, musician, was born in Pilot, Kentucky, in the Red River Gorge area of Powell County on March 17, 1917. The seventh of fourteen children of Daw White and Stella May Ledford, Lily May grew up on a tenant farm. The Ledfords were musically gifted, and by the time Lily May was a teenager she was playing fiddle and banjo in a family band called the Red River Ramblers. In 1936 Ledford auditioned and was chosen to perform in Chicago on the WLS "National Barn Dance." The next year John Lair , Ledford's manager, assembled an all-female string band that featured her clawhammer banjo sound. The group, known as the Coon Creek Girls, included Ledford's sister Rose (guitar), "Daisy" Lange (bass), and "Violet" Koehler (mandolin). In 1939 Daisy and Violet left the band and were replaced by a third Ledford sister, Minnie, known as "Black-eyed Susie." The band was featured regularly for the next eighteen years on the "Renfro Valley Barn Dance" radio program; it disbanded in 1957. Following World War II Ledford married Glenn Pennington; they had three children: Barbara, James, and Robert. She died on July 14, 1985, in Lexington and was buried in the Berea Cemetery in Berea, Kentucky.

RON PEN, Entry Author

Selected Sources from UK Libraries:

Hull, Kenneth C. Lily May : A Legend in Our Time. New York: Carlton, 1975. Print. Hearthstone Book.

ML420.L44 H860, Special Collections Research Center

Appalshop, Inc. Lily May Ledford. Whitesburg, Ky.: Appalshop Films, 1988.
SV-V3399, Young Media Library

Ledford, Lily May. Coon Creek Girl. Reprint ed. Berea, Kentucky: Berea College Appalachian Center, 1991. Print.

B L4984co 1991, Special Collections Research Center - Biography Collection

Birth Dates of Notable Kentuckians: March 16, 1934 - Howard Schnellenberger

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Birth Dates of Notable Kentuckians: March 15, 1863 - Annie Fellows Johnston

   Image from littlecolonel.com

From The Kentucky Encyclopedia -
Annie (Fellows) Johnston, author of popular children's books, was the daughter of the Rev. Albion and Mary (Erskine) Fellows, born on May 15, 1863, in Evansville, Indiana. She attended Evansville Public School, where she taught for one term before attending the University of Iowa in 1881-82. She returned to her teaching position in Evansville for three years and then worked as a stenographer. On October 11, 1888, she married her second cousin, William L. Johnston, a widower with three children, Mary, Rena, and John. During her marriage Johnston wrote short stories for her stepchildren, which were occasionally published in various children's magazines. After William Johnston died in 1892, she began to write children's novels to support her family. Her first work, Big Brother, was published in 1893.

In 1894, on a trip to Pewee Valley, Oldham County , Kentucky, Johnston was inspired to write The Little Colonel (1895). The series of eleven novels that followed, most of them set in Pewee Valley, were among the most popular children's literature of the time. For many Little Colonel fans, the community of Pewee Valley nearly became a shrine. Her romanticized children's novels were translated into several foreign languages. In her thirty-six-year career Johnston wrote thirty-eight books, most of them loosely based on actual places and people. Through her vivid imagination, keen observation, and memories of her own childhood, she created charming characters of high integrity who encounter situations where simple virtues and good intentions always triumph. A minor character in the series, Mary Ware, became the protagonist in another series of novels. Johnston's novels idealized attitudes and a way of life that appealed to contemporary sentimental tastes.

Johnston and her stepchildren moved to Pewee Valley in 1898. Rena died in 1901. The family moved to the Southwest in 1901 for John's health, living in Arizona, California, and Texas. John died in 1910, and Johnston and Mary returned to Pewee Valley. She purchased a home, the Beeches, where she lived and worked until her death on October 5, 1931. Johnston was buried in Evansville, Indiana.

Selected Sources from UK Libraries:

Duffy, Dennis. Four Colonels, Two of Them Small, with Six Arms among Them : The Ideal, American World of Annie Fellows Johnston's "Little Colonel" Series. Lexington, KY?]: [s.n.], 1980. Print.
PS3519.O3 Z46, Special Collections Research Center

Johnston, Annie F. Georgina of the Rainbows. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1916. Beyond the Shelf, Serving Historic Kentuckiana through Virtual Access (IMLS LG-03-02-0012-02) ; B92-237-31299377. Web.
F J641ge, Special Collections Research Center - Fiction Collection

McGuire, Sue Lynn. The Little Colonel : A Phenomenon in Popular Literary Culture. Frankfort: Kentucky Historical Society, 1991. Print.
PS3519.O3 Z460, Special Collections Research Center

Birth Dates of Notable Kentuckians: March 14, 1864 - John Luther “Casey” Jones

Image from pdxretro.com



From The Kentucky Encyclopedia -
John Luther ("Casey") Jones, railroad engineer, was born on March 14, 1864, in Fulton County, Kentucky. His nickname came from his hometown, Cayce. At the age of eighteen Jones went to Jackson, Tennessee, to work for the Mobile & Ohio Railroad. In 1888 he became an engineer for the Illinois Central Railroad. As tribute to his skill, Jones was made engineer in January 1900 on the New Orleans Special, popularly known as the " Cannonball," the fastest passenger train between Chicago and New Orleans.

On the foggy evening of April 29, 1900, Jones pulled into the Memphis, Tennessee, station, the end of his run. Because relay engineer Joe Lewis was ill, Jones and his fireman Simeon Wells were asked to take the Cannonball through to Canton, Mississippi. They agreed and their engine, No. 382, was attached. Close to Vaughan, Mississippi, near the end of the run, two freight trains prepared to pull onto the siding to allow the passenger train to pass, but the air hose on train No. 83 broke, freezing the wheels and stalling the caboose and three freight cars on the main track. Jones's attempt to divert was futile, and seeing the impending disaster he told Wells to jump to safety. Jones was able to slow the train sufficiently to save the lives of Wells and all of his passengers. He was the only casualty of the crash, dying on April 30, 1900, at 3:53 a.m. His courage in staying with the train was commemorated in the well-known ballad " Casey Jones," written by Wallace Saunders a few days after the accident. It was recorded in the 1920s by both Fiddlin' John Carson and Furry Lewis. A special U.S. postage stamp in honor of Jones was issued as part of the series Railroad Engineers Of America in 1950.

Jones married Janie Brady of Jackson, Tennessee, on November 25, 1886, and they had three children. Jones was buried at Jackson.

Selected Sources from UK Libraries:

Randolph, Vance. The Truth about Casey Jones and Other Fabulous American Heroes, including Johnny Appleseed, Davy Crockett, Roy Bean, and Mike Fink. Girard, Kan.: Haldeman-Julius, 1945. Print.

920 K658, Special Collections Research Center

Lee, Fred J. Casey Jones; Epic of the American Railroad. Kingsport, Tenn.: Southern, 1939. Print.

TF140.J6 L440 1993, Special Collections Research Center

Birth Dates of Notable Kentuckians: March 14, 1946 – Wes Unseld

Image from louisville.edu

From The Kentucky Encyclopedia -
Westley Unseld, Hall of Fame basketball player, was born on March 14, 1946, in Louisville to Charles and Cornelia Unseld. An All-State player, he led Louisville's Seneca High School to two state championships, 1963 and 1964. He attended the University of Louisville during 1965-68, was named All-Conference three times, All-American twice, and ranked among the national leaders in rebounding. He was selected in the first round of the 1968 National Basketball Association (NBA) draft by the Washington Bullets and was named the NBA's rookie of the year and most valuable player for the 1968-69 season. Unseld played until 1981 with the Bullets, was named to the Nba All-Star team five times, and was the most valuable player of the 1978 NBA Championship Series. He retired as the Bullets' career leader in games, rebounds, minutes played, and assists.

Moving directly from the court to the front office, Unseld became the vice president of the Bullets and also served as a television broadcaster for Bullets' games. He returned to the bench in 1988 as an assistant coach and later that year became head coach. In 1988 he was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. Unseld served on the board of trustees at St. Mary's College in Baltimore and as the head of Capital Center Charities in Washington.

He married Connie Martin; they have two children, Kimberly and Wesley.

Selected Sources from UK Libraries:Notable Kentucky African Americans Database

Biography Reference Bank Who's Who (Marquis Biographies Online)