My Kentucky
MY KENTUCKY: Our Magnificent Battleship
By Sam Terry Managing Editor Jobe Publishing, Inc. May 15, 1900 – The USS Kentucky was commissioned for service in the United States Navy. The Newport News Shipbuilding Company of Virginia laid down her keel on March 30, 1896. She was launched on March 24, 1898, sponsored by Miss Christine Bradley, daughter of Gov. William…
Read MoreMY KENTUCKY: Hail, our festival day
By Sam Terry Managing Editor Jobe Publishing, Inc. The first Saturday in May is upon us – Kentucky’s day of days, the likes of which there is no other. The Kentucky Derby traces its roots to May 17, 1875 when an estimated 10,000 people gathered for the opening day of racing at the Louisville Jockey…
Read MoreMY KENTUCKY: Walker opens the new west
By Sam Terry Managing Editor Jobe Publishing, Inc. Dr. Thomas Walker’s journal entry for April 13, 1750 is the first written record of a non-Native American at the place now known as the Cumberland Gap. He and five other men – Ambrose Powell, William Tomlinson, Colby Chew, Henry Lawless, and John Hughs – set out…
Read MoreMY KENTUCKY: The Kentucky Tragedy
By Sam Terry Managing Editor Jobe Publishing, Inc. Robert Penn Warren, who would become a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, poet, and literary critic was born in Guthrie, Kentucky on April 24, 1905. While Warren is one of the Commonwealth’s most accomplished offspring, one of his most popular books, World Enough and Time (published 1950) is based…
Read MoreMY KENTUCKY: Baseball’s Kentucky Colonel
By Sam Terry Managing Editor Jobe Publishing, Inc. On April 16, 1925, Earle Bryan Combs, a native of Pebworth in Owsley County, Kentucky made his debut with the New York Yankees, beginning a major league baseball career that would last until 1935. Combs began playing baseball as a youngster using tree limbs and balls made…
Read MoreMY KENTUCKY: Football in a cow pasture
By Sam Terry Managing Editor Jobe Publishing, Inc. On April 9, 1880 Centre College and Kentucky University (Kentucky’s A&M College that later reverted to its historic name of Transylvania University) played the first football game in Kentucky. Some historians believe it was the first intercollegiate football game played in the south, others think it was…
Read MoreMY KENTUCKY: The Swedish Nightingale’s Visit
By Sam Terry Managing Editor Jobe Publishing, Inc. “Lind Mania” was the term the American press used to describe the immense popularity of Jenny Lind as she traveled through the country on a tour that included Kentucky’s cave region. Known as the “Swedish Nightingale,” Lind was highly regarded as a vocalist of immense talent whose…
Read MoreMY KENTUCKY: Fabulous history-makers
By Sam Terry Managing Editor Jobe Publishing, Inc. Seventy years ago this month Coach Adolph Rupp’s legendary basketball team, “The Fabulous Five,” ushered in a new era in University of Kentucky sports. Rupp boasted that the team was “the greatest basketball team of all time.” The celebrated quintet consisted of forward Wallace “Wah-Wah” Jones, guards…
Read MoreMY KENTUCKY: Westward ho!
By Sam Terry Managing Editor Jobe Publishing, Inc. The spring of 1775 was filled with momentous events in America, most related to tensions between the American colonies and their Mother Country: Patrick Henry delivered his famous words “Give me liberty or give me death,” Paul Revere made his legendary ride to warn of approaching British…
Read MoreMY KENTUCKY: Duncan Hines recommends Col. Sanders’ Cafe
By Sam Terry Managing Editor Jobe Publishing, Inc. Bowling Green native Duncan Hines published a new edition of his guidebook, Adventures in Good Eating, on March 11, 1939. As a salesman traveling across America in the 1930s, Hines began keeping notes on good places to eat along the country’s highways. Initially, Hines and his first…
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