Kentucky Parks & Crafts Poster Series
Poster series celebrating Kentucky’s State Parks
If you grew up in Kentucky, I'm willing to bet you have some pretty amazing memories of visiting at least one of Kentucky's state parks. I know I do.
Every summer when I was a kid , my family visited Jenny Wiley State Park for picnics and family reunions. We'd go see plays at the outdoor theatre, and we'd celebrate my brother's birthday.
My cousin Amy and I cheese for the camera at Jenny Wiley State Park.
My brother opens some sweet Power Rangers gear at his birthday party, as my grandmother looks on. Jenny Wiley State Park.
Our state parks are pretty amazing. They're accessible to all Kentuckians, and they provide free recreation for folks of all ages. The 49 Kentucky State Parks cover approximately 45,000 acres of the Commonwealth, and they are one of only a handful of state parks systems that remain free of charge for users. And that's where things start to get a little odd. We have a lot of state parkland, and only a finite amount of park funding. Only $8 million was allocated to park maintenance from 2005 - 2015; in 2016, the Kentucky State Parks were allocated $16 million as part of a “Refreshing the Finest” campaign which funded projects like the renovation of the then fire-damaged May Lodge at my beloved Jenny Wiley State Park. It is estimated that, at present, the Kentucky State Parks System is still vastly underfunded with a total deferred maintenance for all 49 parks standing at a total of $240 million. We take our parks for granted -- they've always just been there -- but they take serious money to maintain.
The Kentucky State Parks Foundation is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit entity that serves as an independent fundraising, advocacy, and education resource for Kentucky's state parks. The KSPF, which receives no funding from the Commonwealth of Kentucky nor the Kentucky Department of Parks, exists to help the Commonwealth's state parks stay viable. It's a pretty important job, and you can help. You can donate directly to the KSPF, you can become a Friend of your local park by joining a group that donates volunteer hours and financial resources to an individual park, or you can shop the Kentucky Parks and Crafts Poster series to show the world which Kentucky State Park you love the most.
The Kentucky Parks & Crafts Poster Series is comprised of 16 art prints, priced at $20 each, which celebrate some of Kentucky's best-loved parks. I can't wait to hang the Jenny Wiley print and the Cumberland Falls print in my office; both remind me of wonderful childhood memories!
If you'll be in the Louisville area this week, be sure to visit Revelry Boutique Gallery this Thursday, May 24th, from 5:30 - 7 pm for the release party for the entire poster series! If you'd like to win a State Park poster of your own from HerKentucky and Kentucky for Kentucky, keep an eye on my Instagram and Facebook pages. And let me know in the comments below, what's your favorite Kentucky State Park?
Ten Things You Probably Didn't Know About George Clooney
Ten things you probably didn't know about Kentucky native and actor George Clooney.
On May 6, 1961, George Timothy Clooney was born in Lexington, KY, the younger child of journalist Nick Clooney and his wife, Nina. George, the nephew of singer and actress Rosemary Clooney, made his TV debut at age 5 on his father's Cincinnati-based talk show, and grew up in the Bracken County, KY town of Augusta. He was clearly a charm from a young age.
Young George with his older sister, Ada.
In honor of everybody's favorite Kentucky-born birthday boy, I thought it would be fun to do a little trivia this morning. Here are 10 things you probably didn't know about George Clooney.
George Clooney and Brad Pitt dance at a 2013 Oscars after-party.
- George was a high school athlete; he tried out for the Cincinnati Reds, but he didn't make the team.
- He is the only person ever to be nominated for an Academy Award in six categories.
- Although George rose to fame playing Dr. Doug Ross in the NBC medical drama ER, he previously had a supporting role in the similarly-named Elliot Gould sitcom E/R, which ran on CBS for one season.
- He was arrested in 2012 for a planned protest at the Sudanese embassy in Washington, DC.
- George attended classes at Northern Kentucky University, the University of Cincinnati, and the Beverly Hills Playhouse. He dropped out of NKU to to make a low-budget movie with his cousin Miguel Ferrer.
- George has been married twice: first to actress Talia Balsam (Mona on Mad Men) and currently to attorney Amal Alamuddin.
- George is a distant relative to perhaps the most famous Kentuckian of all: His maternal great-great-great-great-grandmother, Mary Ann Sparrow, was a half-sister to Nancy Hanks, mother of Abraham Lincoln.
- For years, George had a pet potbellied pig named Max. He credits Max with saving his life, by waking him up before the 1994 Northridge, California earthquake.
- He guest-starred on classic 1980s TV shows including The Golden Girls and Murder, She Wrote, as well as his parts on The Facts of Life and Roseanne.
- George is the co-owner of a premium tequila label, Casamigo. One of his partners in the Casamigo brand is his friend and neighbor Rande Gerber (Cindy Crawford's husband.)
George with his mother, Nina.
From all of us here at HerKentucky, Happy Birthday, George!!
{Women's History Month} Rosie the Riveter
Kentuckian Rose Will Monroe served as a model for feminist icon Rosie the Riveter.
Everyone knows that Rosie the Riveter is one of the most iconic images of the 20th Century. Rosie was first a symbol for women called to work in America's factories during World War II, and later the rallying cry of all women seeking equal rights.
But did you know that Rosie the Riveter is a Kentucky girl?
Norman Rockwell's allegorical take on Rosie.
Rose Will Monroe
Rose Will Monroe was born in the tiny Pulaski County community of Bobtown in 1920. By the 1940s, she was a young widow with two daughters, living in the Detroit area. Rose was called not only by her patriotic duty but also by the very real need to support her family. Soon, she was building B-29 bombers at the Willow Run Aircraft Factory, a former Ford Motor factory.
Rose was chosen as the "face" of Rosie the Riveter for a promotional film about the purchase of war bonds, following the popularity of a song of the same name.
After the War, Rose continued to work hard, defy stereotypes, and follow her dreams. She challenged gender stereotypes by continuing to work in traditionally male-dominated fields. Over the years, she drove a cab and founded her own construction company. Rose also fulfilled a lifelong dream of learning to fly, earning her pilot's license in her 50s.
Like many other women of her era, Rose Will Monroe found her calling through necessity. Her "Can Do" attitude made her Rosie the Riveter.
The Real Colonel Sanders
Over on HerKentucky's Facebook page today, we've been talking about Colonel Sanders.
Well, we've been talking about KFC's latest incarnations of Colonel Sanders.
You've probably seen those KFC ads with Darrell Hammond. They were pretty awful. And, now, he's been replaced by Norm MacDonald.
Howdy, folks. It’s me, the REAL Colonel Sanders, back again, but for real this time. pic.twitter.com/Zj30LPXmXB
— KFC (@kfc) August 17, 2015I'm not going to lie, I find the whole thing VERY creepy. Harland Sanders was a real, live person. He was born in Clark County Indiana in 1890. He lied about his age to join the U.S. Army. He worked on railroads and ferry boats and even practiced law for a while, until he got into a courtroom brawl with a client. Eventually, he settled in Corbin, KY, where he ran a Shell Gas Station and perfected his fried chicken recipe.
Of course, there are a whole lot of people in Southeastern Kentucky who make really good fried chicken. The reason that Colonel Sanders' image has graced a million paper chicken buckets instead of any of our Appalachian grandmothers is that he was a master of marketing. He embraced the iconic image of a Southern gentleman --- a Kentucky Colonel -- in a white suit and a string tie. He insisted on being called Colonel. And the image remained with KFC long after Sanders sold his operations, and even after he passed.
Somehow, the stylized cartoon we've all seen a million times on KFC's logo seems okay. These salt and pepper shakers from Louisville Stoneware seem kind of adorable.
But hiring two guys -- irreverent comedians and non-Southerners at that -- to play someone who was alive during many Kentuckians' lifetime just seems disrespectful and in poor, poor taste. Colonel Sanders was a shrewd businessman, a first-class marketer, possibly a terrible lawyer, and a fine cook. But he was also an actual living person whose legacy deserves a little more than KFC is providing him.
Henrietta's Louisville
Inspired by Emily Bingham's biography Irrepressible: The Jazz Age Life of Henrietta Bingham, HerKentucky editor Heather C. Watson takes readers on a photographic tour of Henrietta's Louisville.
It's been a long time since a book captured my imagination the way Emily Bingham's Irrepressible: The Jazz Age Life of Henrietta Bingham did.
There's something about a really well-crafted biography. Of course, the subject led an extraordinary life, or she wouldn't be considered for biographical treatment. But, some biographies -- and some subjects -- really inspire a reader. They carry you back to a different era, they introduce you to new ideas, they sometimes shock you, and they make you feel like you really know them. Personally, I can never get enough of stories about Kentucky's infamous madam Belle Brezing, Jazz Age darling Zelda Fitzgerald, and now Zelda's contemporary (and fellow Southern judge's daughter) Henrietta Bingham. I just couldn't resist going on a little tour of the places Henrietta knew right here in Louisville.
I wanted to start my tour where the Binghams' story began, at Henrietta's grandparents' home, the Samuel and Henrietta Long Miller House at 1236 South Fourth Street. The Miller Mansion is long gone; in its stead is The Puritan Apartments, a senior-living apartment complex.
Only a few blocks away is the original home of Louisville Collegiate School, where Henrietta matriculated and played basketball.
I then took a drive out to Peewee Valley to visit Henrietta's grandparents' summer home, where her parents lived for a while, and which has undergone significant upgrades and remodeling since Mrs. Miller sold the property in 1915.
Of course, no tour of Henrietta's Louisville is complete without a trip to the famous Pendennis Club, where she scandalized Louisville society by kissing a girl. (The same thing also happened at the Louisville Country Club, but I didn't want to sneak onto private club property to snap photos. For the same reason, I didn't head out to Harmony Landing Country Club, the site of Henrietta's former horse farm.)
Then, I traveled out Louisville's picturesque River Road to visit the homes of Henrietta's father, Judge Robert Worth Bingham. River Road is such an enchanting area; downtown Louisville seems so far away, and yet clearly visible. Indiana's shores are just across the Ohio. It's peaceful and lovely; no wonder it became a fashionable address for estates like the Binghams'.
Of course, Judge Bingham didn't live just anywhere. The private drives and secluded settings of Melcombe Bingham and Lincliff, served as a great reminder of how very sheltered and privileged Henrietta's Louisville life was. (Lincliff, where Judge Bingham made his home with second wife Mary Lily Flagler, is currently home to novelist Sue Grafton.)
Finally, I paid a visit to Cave Hill Cemetery to visit the Bingham family plots. After spending a couple of weeks under Henrietta's spell, I wanted to pay my respects. She truly led a fascinating life, and it only seemed right to take a moment to reflect on the ways in which she captured my imagination.
A Conversation with Irrepressible Author Emily Bingham
HerKentucky editor Heather C. Watson interviews Louisville native author and historian Emily Bingham.
was at the top of HerKentucky's list of the summer's must-read books. The story of a charismatic Jazz Age debutante who scandalized Louisville society by kissing girls at the city's most exclusive clubs while charming London's elite Bloomsbury intellectual set , Irrepressible reads like a tightly constructed novel, deftly weaving through continents and eras to tell a lovely and ultimately tragic story.The second child and only daughter of Louisville politician, judge, and publishing magnate Robert Worth Bingham, Henrietta was born in 1901 into a Kentucky of thoroughbreds, cotillions, and country clubs. Her Louisville was a world most of us have only experienced in myth -- her grandmother Henrietta Long Miller owned an imposing mansion in Old Louisville and an equally impressive summer home in Peewee Valley -- but which was often too rigid for her tastes. Upon graduation from Louisville Collegiate School, Henrietta sought refuge first at Smith College (where she began an affair with magnetic young composition professor and heiress Mina Kirstein, whose family co-founded Filene's Department Stores), then abroad, where her gracious disposition and violet eyes captivated the free-spirited intellectuals of the Bloomsbury group. Among her confidantes and lovers were Wimbledon champion Helen Hull Jacobs and actor John Houseman; her complex and co-dependent relationship with her larger-than-life father cast a decidedly Southern Gothic shadow over her life of privilege.
Henrietta Bingham (image via The Daily Beast)
Ultimately, the societal norms of Henrietta's era -- it's heartbreaking to remember that, less than a century ago, gay Americans were forced into the closet by the imminent threat of criminal charges and physical violence -- along with a lifelong history of mental health and substance abuse issues ultimately dulled Henrietta's flame. The outré flapper and muse became known as a sad and embarrassing branch of the Bingham family tree. When Henrietta's great-niece, the writer and historian Emily Bingham, announced her plans to name her daughter for this relative whom she'd never known, the story goes, her family blanched. Henrietta's name was considered an unwelcome burden to saddle upon a new generation of Binghams, so Emily started reconstructing her great-aunt's story. In a twist so fortuitous that it seems torn from the pages of a Hollywood script, Emily Bingham found two perfectly preserved trunks in the attic of her family's estate. Henrietta's story unfolded through the trunks' contents -- a glamorous story of love, heartbreak, and adventure. Emily graciously answered some questions about Irrepressible for HerKentucky readers.
Henrietta's partner, Helen Hull Jacobs
HK: What was going through your mind when you discovered Henrietta’s trunk of memories?
EB: That day in 2009 was probably one of the greatest experiences I'll ever have as a historian. I went to that attic in my childhood home very reluctantly. I had peeked into the trunk some time before and seen a lot of very old shoes, hats, that sort of thing, and it was pure duty to spend hours on a frigid January day in the uninsulated space full of soot and lit by a single dangling bulb. The house itself was empty and did not contain my happiest childhood memories (though I did love exploring the vast attic where servants had once lived and where my father and his siblings had a lot of toys and books and old saddles stored).
The first amazing find was a massive silver flask with Henrietta's initials. It holds about two fifths of bourbon. Nothing like the discreet flapper flasks you might imagine.
Then I came across the tennis outfit that turned out to have belonged to Helen Hull Jacobs, the 1930s lesbian tennis champion. Her monogrammed shirt suggested a more intimate relationship than I knew had existed between her and my great aunt, and the clothes, which I sent to the Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, RI led me to her diaries and scrapbooks and the "joyous and satisfying life" she shared with Henrietta in the 30s and 40s.
There were some little tiny folded papers containing white powder. I thought I'd come across some illicit drug but on closer inspection they proved to be "dog powders" for Henrietta's beloved border terriers and Pekingese!
And then, as I was about to leave for the day to relieve my babysitter, I saw that another trunk was hidden in the shadows in a corner of the garret room. At the very bottom is where I found the carefully tied up and almost perfectly-preserved collection of love letters from the sculptor Stephen Tomlin and the actor/producer John Houseman. Seeing Henrietta through their besotted eyes was one of the utter thrills of my experience with this book.
Young Henrietta. Image via The Daily Beast.
HK: Was there ever a time when you thought of turning back and keeping Henrietta’s story in the past?
EB: Absolutely. My editor didn't think the book was even possible given that I had no diaries and almost no letters from Henrietta herself. So it was almost DOA. But I pushed past that with some of the discoveries in the attic and elsewhere. There was a point when her depression and addiction melded with a sad and confusing time in my life and I wondered if the project might not make me ill.
Henrietta Bingham (image via Courier-Journal)
HK: I’m a Jazz Age buff, and a Kentucky native, so as I read, I was thinking both of the timeline of some of my favorite authors and historical figures (thinking, e.g., “OK, Scott and Zelda would have been here, or Gerald and Sara Murphy would have been here”) and of a very local timeline (saying things like “the Miller house was a block down from the Woman’s Club” or “of course they all thought Henrietta was a gracious hostess; she was a Louisville girl!”) It almost felt like Henrietta lived two completely separate lives –freedom in London and duty in Louisville. When you were working on the book, how did you feel that place played into Henrietta’s story?
EB: Henrietta felt very connected to her Kentucky and southern roots. There is a remarkable passage in the pages John Houseman cut from his memoir: see page 180-181. He was drawn in by the romance of Kentucky but later he came to see things in a more nuanced way. Here's a bit more of it: "I discovered that Louisville was, in reality, a typical middle-Western American city, indistinguishable from Indianapolis or Cincinnati, and that its main claim to national fame -- Churchill Downs, scene of the Kentucky Derby -- was ringed with factories and power plants that made it, without question, one of the most squalid hippodromes in the United States. Yet, for close to a century, from Foster to Fitzgerald, the legend of Louisville's romantic fascination had persisted--and not without reason. For in its own mysterious way the spell worked -- not only on public occasions such as the long Derby weekend, when the entire population, swollen by streams of visitors, lived in a state of collective alcoholic hallucination, but also, in a more intimate way, each time the natives came together and succeeded, through sheer emotional energy, in generating and sustaining an atmosphere of glamour and gaity that was no less magical for being achieved almost entirely with Bourbon and mirrors."
Henrietta loved her Miller grandmother. She also loved having a mansion to throw parties in. She dared to make passes at girls at the Louisville Country Club and kiss her lover in the elevator at the Pendennis. She went sledding in Cherokee Park and was pushed in a stroller in Central Park in Old Louisville. I was stunned when I figured out that for at least a year she and her father and elder brother occupied an apartment 5 doors away from me on Cherokee Road! London and Manhattan were much freer places for her, for sure, but I think she always wanted to come back and her thoroughbred breeding farm at Harmony Landing was the way she hoped to find her way in -- brave as a woman, a lesbian, and someone without direct experience in bloodstock (though her great uncle Dennis Long had two Derby winners in her childhood and that may have set her ambitions early).
Emily Bingham. Image via author's website.
HK: You do an amazing job of, as you say in the preface, not presuming to speak for Henrietta. Yet, you’re very fair with your assessments of her mental health and her likely dyslexia. Was this a hard line to walk?
It's always hard to walk the line between empathizing with your subject and wanting to protect them and being frank about their weaknesses and shortcomings. I believe that readers don't just want "models" and can appreciate lives that are as complicated and imperfect as their own.
HK: If you had the chance to talk to Henrietta, what would you say to her?
EB: Sing for me. Play the sax. Tell me the stories of the musicians you loved and who, doubtless, found you pretty interesting, too. What was your favorite bar, show, concert, player? Where did you feel most free? Who did you really love? Finally, "You are in the world again and people still find you lovable and irresistible and are so glad not to have lost you altogether."
Thanks so much to Emily for the amazing interview, and for writing the summer's best book. Check back later this week as HerKentucky takes you on a photo tour of Henrietta's Louisville.
Five Things That Kind of (Maybe a Little) Connect Tom Cruise to Kentucky
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV was born on July 3, 1962, in Syracuse, NY. But, anybody who's lived in Kentucky any time knows that, before he became the superstar actor Tom Cruise, he spent some time around here. There was a period in the '90s where it felt like every Louisville native I met had an older brother who'd attended high school with Tommy Mapother. In the spirit of exceptionally large classes at St. X and my general belief that I can put a Kentucky spin on just about anything, here are five factoids that connect Birthday Boy Tom Cruise to Kentucky.
Image via Kentucky for Kentucky.
- The same model of U.S. Navy "Tomcat" fighter plane that Cruise's character Maverick flew in Top Gun is on display at the Aviation Museum of Kentucky, located beside the airport. So, the next time you're catching a cheap flight out of the LEX, you can take a photo of that plane, sing the chorus of "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" and pour a little out for Goose before you board. Everybody knows you don't need to be early for a flight out of Lexington, and you're basically commemorating a seminal piece of Kentucky history.
- Even if it was only for a brief time, Tom Cruise attended Louisville's St. Xavier High School. If you've lived in Louisville (or even visited for more than 5 minutes), you know that going to St. X is The Most Louisville Thing Ever. There you go: Tom's a Louivillian.
- Tom's grandfather, Thomas Cruise Mapother Jr, founded the Louisville bankruptcy law firm Mapother & Mapother. So, if you went to law school and hated studying the bankruptcy code, or even if you've ever gotten a collection letter from Mapother, you're basically a cousin to Tom, right?
- Speaking of cousins, Tom's cousin and Mission Impossible 2 co-star William Mapother is also an actor, and a full-on Louisville native.
- Before matriculating at St. X, Tom also attended St. Francis Seminary in Cincinnati, a city which everyone knows is just an extension of the Northern Kentucky Metro Area.
So, there you go. Tom Cruise's Kentucky roots run deep.
Happy birthday, Tom, you Crazy Kentuckian!!
{Lest you doubt the veracity of these claims, please note that much of this article was influenced by Kentucky for Kentucky's blog post Tom Cruise Briefly Attended High School in Louisville," which, in turn, references "multiple biographical sources gleaned from the Internet in a great haste.' Never let it be said that the HerKentucky girls don't do their research.}