There’s always a Logan County Connection, we contend, and that’s proven to be true with the biggest national news story of the year. Sorry, LeBron and
Tiger, but that distinction belongs to the tragic, massive BP oil spill off the Gulf Coast, a $20 billion-plus story so far.
Here’s the Logan Connection: BP owns 40 percent of Logan Aluminum, the centerpiece of the local economy. You can trace British Petroleum’s investment
through the Anaconda/ARCO Metals lineage.
Leaders of Logan Aluminum-both past and present-have assured The LoJo that BP’s drama won’t affect the corporate island headquartered at Epley
Station’s financial future.
Logan Aluminum produces a major portion of the sheet metal that goes into all aluminum cans, and company officials are convinced that the plant will go
about business as normal, whether BP decides to divest itself of some of its assets or not. No doubt about it: Logan Aluminum is an asset, and other
major corporations would be keenly interested in acquiring what also is a great asset of Logan County.
The LoJo
The death of Alvin ‘Butch’ Klein recently leaves a void in our community. He was fun, an astute businessman and a good citizen. For decades he
ran Kleins Department Store on the corner of Main and East Third streets in Russellville. It was a three-generation “dry goods” store started by his
grandfather, Ben Klein, a traveling salesman who chose to set up shop and put down his roots here in 1905 under the name New York Store. Butch’s dad
and mom, Nathan and Bertha Klein, ran the store from 1945 until Butch became Bertha’s partner after his dad’s death in 1977.
The Kleins’ building burned in 1978 and threatened to take Young’s Department Store, the Louisville Store, the Citizens National Bank and Perry’s Drug
Store with it, but the Russellville Fire Department-with the assistance of all the departments in the county and Bowling Green-managed to save the rest
of downtown. Butch and Ann quickly rebuilt the store building, but downsized their operation by specializing in men’s clothing and carpet while renting
out part of the building. Klein’s closed in 1992 after 87 years in business in downtown Russellville. Eugene Hargis’ accounting firm and other
businesses are located in that downtown anchor now.
Two likable men closely associated with the Kleins were visible at Butch’s visitation on a Sunday evening. Charles Boyd, who is an independent carpet installer in every sense of the word, and Butch’s right-hand man, Wayne Reeves, were joking and smiling, but we all
knew they were hurting from the loss. Wayne was also working that night. There’s no question that Wayne’s genuine, down-to-earth, caring personality is
a key to the success of his current employer, Young Funeral Home.
The Kleins have been one of two popular Jewish families who were an integral part of the business community for the majority of the 20th
century. The other is the Couples/Freemans, who owned and operated the Russellville Coca-Cola Bottling Company on Winter Street where the U.S. Bank
parking lot is now located. Now with Dr. Harold ‘Plute’ Klein and Dr. Jeff Klein and their families living in Louisville, Louis Klein in
Florida, Cole Freeman in the Washington, D.C. area and Sam Freeman in Las Vegas only Ann Klein, Sherrie Freeman and Hal and Jennifer Freeman make their homes here.
The LoJo
Ruby Hinchee
, who died on the Fourth of July at age 96, was one of the last of a generation of farm women who didn't have to depend on outside sources for a
living. She raised chickens and hogs not far from her door until about six weeks before her death. She was a familiar sight in her bonnet and apron
among her hens outside her Morgantown Road home. Grandson Tim Smith tells The Lojo that all of those animals are now gone, but they and
she will liveon forever in the family's memories.
Educators have lost parents recently. Emily Downing was a genteel lady who was the mother of Jackie Powell, who teaches at Lewisburg, and
of retired teachers in the Logan system, Mary Ann Downing and Sue Wood. Her death was unexpected, but she had just had Sunday dinner with
her three daughters. She collapsed in Sue's arms at Mary Ann's house.
The sudden illness and death of Donnie Kennedy came at much too young an age, not long after the death of his father. He had a large, extended
family, including son Barry Kennedy, who is an immensely popular social studies teacher at Bowling Green Technical College. Barry has a sister, Kristie Kennedy.
Among the well-known people we've lost in recent months have been D.L. Robey, who was patriarch of one of the largest family farming operations
in Southcentral Kentucky; nurse Jackie Key, who like Mr. Kennedy died much too young; Glennie Riley, who was an inspiration for the
creation of one of our largest locally owned retail operations, Riley-White Drugs; war heroCharles Shelton; Helen Knight, who left behind
at age 93 a large family including businessman son Ken Knight and highly efficient librarian Ruth Mazour; and Howard Williams,
also a veteran who was a long-time agri-businessman and the father of a quartet of well-known sons, Warner, Tom, Joe amd Bob.
The LoJo
Former Lewisburg mayor Milford Martin has been seriously ill, suffering from a severe case of pneumonia. His sister Martene, who has been here
from California, says that he was able to continue his beautiful gospel singing until about three years ago when he was 82. The pain in his legs made
it difficult for him to stand to sing.
We continue to be concerned about the health of Roger Morgan, a popular owner of Roy's Bar-B-Q, and Mary Turner, whose family created and
operates Shaker Realty. Very sick recently have been retired teacher Barbara Wright, retired church secretary Malta Moore, and Ronnie Potter, whose wife Helen is fixture in the office of Russellville High School.
The LoJo
Now retired 21 years from his position as Russellville City Clerk, Billy Bibb looks remarkably healthy. At age 86, he still bowls weekly in a
Bowling Green league. He tells The LoJo he averaged 147 in a recent series of games.
Recent home school graduate Ben Foster has been free lance writing for some time. Ben currently writes regular reviews of current country music
singles on a blog @ http://1to10countryreview.blogspot.com, His work is quite mature.m
Lloyd Chapman
, a 1969 graduate of Russellville High School who is retired from the National Park Service and lives with his family in the Northeast, sent us a
century-old picture on a postcard that included his grandfather, Boyd Chapman. Written on the postcard was the following: "Made at Meffords lake four
miles up Mud River from Rochester Kentucky. Oct 1909. Read left to right: Johnnie Baldwin, Page Burchett, Boyd Chapman, Sidney Martin, Robert Carter
and Hiram Burchett. Spent one week fishing."
Boyd Chapman was the father of William Owen Chapman, a Russellville resident and legend, of the late Homer Chapman and the late Boyd Chapman,
Lloyd's dad. All three of the Chapman boys were adept at sports and/or sporting events, maybe partially because their dad liked fishing so much he
could do it for a week.
The LoJo
We began with Logan Connections. More Connections: The David Billingsleys have two "coincidence stories" to tell to emphasize the theory, Amy Billingsley is the former Amy Lynch, a 1975 graduate of Russsellville High School who is a nurse. Husband David Billingsley was a
basketball coach and baseball coach at Lewisburg High School, the first baseball coach at Logan County High School, and a member of the coaching staff
of the Cougars’ state championship basketball team. They moved away from here while their children Kresta and Kent were still young.
Here’s David’s first story: "Our son Kent was wed to Amber McGehee of Prospect. on May 16 in Louisville. Amber is the granddaughter of Lawrence and Rebecca McGehee of Lewisburg. Performing the ceremony was Mike Brady (yes, the one and only of Lewisburg)."
Now comes Coach Billingsley's second story: "A few years ago, Amy and I were on a plane sitting on the tarmac in Cancun waiting to fly back to the U.S.
It was spring break for the college kids, and we had just completed our dream vacation for our 25thwedding anniversary. As we sat there
waiting to be next in line to take off, Amy happened to glance behind us and notice that there were two young men who were adorned with WKU attire.
With both of us being Hilltopper graduates and desiring to cut through what had become a long wait for the only runway at Cancun “International”
Airport, I decided to strike up a conversation with the two young Toppers.
“'I see you all are Toppers,' I said. 'She and I (pointing to Amy) graduated from Western.' They politely smiled and I could see that they weren’t
particularly impressed. But, I wasn’t done with the conversation, and Mrs. Talkative had raised up so she could see over the seat and had become all
ears, perched to jump into the conversation at any moment. 'Where y’all from?' I asked. The first one replied, but didn’t give me reason to continue;
however, the second one stated that he was from “Adairville”. I looked at Amy and smiled as if, “We’ve hooked him, now.”
"'We used to live in Logan County; what’s your name?' He responded, and he said it was Chris Scales.
"Realizing that he was about the right age to belong to one of my former baseball players, I asked who his father was. He replied that it was Adam. I
replied, 'I coached your father in high school”.
"At the time Amy had exhibited all of the restraint that she could handle and she was about to jump into the conversation and, boy, did she ever. Amy
said, 'And I delivered you.' Apparently, the doctor did not arrive in time for the Chris' birth. and Amy was the OB nurse that night. The young man had
a priceless look on his face and I could tell that he was somewhat unbelieving, but a true story, nevertheless."
Chris is the son of Adam and Becky Scales of Russellville. Adam was a member of the first Cougar baseball team after having been mentioned in Sports Illustrated for hitting two grand slams in one district game while playing for the Adairville Cardinals as a freshman.
See, there's always a Logan Connection.