famous Kentuckians

In January 2023, I went to the now-closed Pivot Brewing for an Adult Book Fair — an attempt to bring back the magic of the Scholastic Book Fair for adults.

So many people were there that I spent most of the time waiting in line, but when I finally made it to the books, I did find one that I wanted: Famous Kentuckians by Billy Reed, a collection of his columns for the Courier Journal.

When I paid, the bookseller said, “You’ll get a laugh out of that — ‘famous’ Kentuckians.”

“I did not laugh,” I wrote in my journal. “I was not the audience for that joke.”

It’s little secret that I love Kentuckians and think they’re (we’re) the best in the world. Learning and writing about famous Kentuckians — like Alice Dunnigan, of course — is one of my favorite things to do.

In the Foreword to the collection, written by former Kentucky Gov. Happy Chandler, I found an oft-repeated quote.

“I never met a Kentuckian who wasn’t coming home,” Chandler wrote. “By that I mean there’s a thread here, something that makes a Kentuckian feel special.”

I must confess that I still haven’t read the book from cover to cover, but I’ve flipped through to find profiles of people like Henry Clay, whom we all know as the Great Compromiser; Mary Todd Lincoln, who’s having quite a moment on Broadway right now; and Isaac Murphy, a Black man once known as the best jockey in the world. There’s Jesse Stuart, the teacher and poet who long ago described how I feel about my Commonwealth:

I didn’t have any choices as to where I was born,

But if I had had my choice,

I would have chosen Kentucky.

Yes, I did check right away, and no, Alice Dunnigan isn’t featured in the book. Unsurprisingly for a book published in 1977 (or even far more recently), there are deserving people missing. No list of 52 could ever be comprehensive, but we can keep improving whose stories we share and how.

I bought Famous Kentuckians secondhand, so there’s an inscription to a past owner inside the front cover: “For Peter, our native Kentuckian.” I can’t know for sure, of course, but I imagine a grandparent writing to a grandchild.  

Then, on the Table of Contents, at the bottom of a list of names, someone has penciled in “Peter” — a sentiment that I find so lovely.

So that’s my encouragement today: Put your name on a list of famous Kentuckians. I give you permission to write it in ink.