Author: Catherine Conner Publisher: University Press of Kentucky ISBN: 0813182832 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 199
Book Description
This lively memoir recounts the story of a determined woman who led a remarkable life in the highest circles of power in both state and national politics. Catherine Conner spent her formative years on a farm named "Solitude," located outside of Bardstown. Her father, who taught her early to ride and swim, told the young woman, "I can't teach you how to be a lady, but I can teach you how to behave like a gentleman." She was weaned on a secret "early breakfast" of bourbon and milk toddies that her father brought to her every morning. Though she enjoyed privilege, Conner also witnessed the harsher sides of rural life. Those experiences markedly shaped the personality of a woman who would become the youngest National Democratic Committeewoman and would subsequently serve in FDR's inner circle. Conner began her political career in Kentucky under the tutelage of J. Dan Talbott of Bardstown, heading the successful effort to have Federal Hill, better known as "My Old Kentucky Home," preserved as a state park, which has now become one of the most popular in Kentucky. When local leaders proved only mildly supportive of the project, Conner devised a campaign in 1921 that raised $45,000 by having schoolchildren all over the state drop their pennies into a cardboard replica of the famous home. She acted as a special assistant to Harry Hopkins for five years, helping set up departments to carry out New Deal programs and lobbying. She befriended many of the shapers of the 20th Century, including Senator Sam Rayburn, A.B. "Happy" Chandler, and Senator Harry Byrd of Virginia. Throughout her life, Conner witnessed remarkable events. She saw the Hindenburg crash, met Amelia Earhart, and had Cary Grant show her how to gut a Thanksgiving turkey.
Author: Emily Bingham Publisher: University Press of Kentucky ISBN: 1985901323 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 417
Book Description
"The sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home." So begins an American standard, first published as a minstrel song, that became dear to the hearts of millions and ultimately was enshrined as the Kentucky Derby's sonic centerpiece—a popular selling point for Kentucky tourism. Emily Bingham's masterful decoding of Stephen Foster's 1853 ballad reveals that the song was always about slavery and how white Americans wanted to remember it. Acknowledging her own entanglement in this legacy, Bingham takes readers on the journey of a melody, from its inception by a white northerner, to its enormous success on the blackface circuit, in recordings by Al Jolson and Bing Crosby, and on the pages of Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, to its countless screen appearances, including Shirley Temple movies, The Simpsons, and Mad Men. For almost two centuries, "My Old Kentucky Home" has never been just a song—it continues to be a resonant, changing emblem of America's original sin, whose blood-drenched shadow haunts us still. My Old Kentucky Home: The Astonishing Life and Reckoning of an Iconic American Song investigates the tune's hidden history, lodged in the nation's cultural DNA, and ends with a startling solution for what to do with this artifact of race and slavery.
Author: Thomas D. Clark Publisher: ISBN: Category : Architecture Languages : en Pages : 312
Book Description
In The People's House: Governor's Mansions of Kentucky, Dr. Thomas D. Clark, Kentucky's historian laureate, and Margaret A. Lane paint a vivid portrait of the life inside the mansions' bricks and mortar. They examine the accomplishments and failures of their residents, the ideas and influences that have grown up within their walls, and the births, deaths, marriages, and celebrations that have brought life to the homes. Complete with over two hundred color and black and white photographs and illustrations, many of them quite rare, this only account of Kentucky governor's mansions offers a unique glimpse inside the buildings that have been respected, revered, and used by the state's leaders for two centuries.
Author: Catherine Conner
Author: Emily Bingham
Author: United States. Congress
Author: 
Author: 
Author: 
Author: 
Author: Andrew G. Leonard
Author: Thomas D. Clark
Author: Sears, Roebuck and Company