For the last few months, citizens and visitors of Hopkinsville couldn’t miss the bronze statue of former 51st Kentucky Governor Ned Breathitt — masterfully, artfully crafted and placed between the Alhambra Theatre and the Christian County Courthouse.
Monday morning, noted dignitaries and those closest to Breathitt gathered to officially dedicate the efforts and complete work — work that fully encapsulates one of Hopkinsville’s beloved native sons.
Ned’s son, Edward, spent months upon months on the sculpture, and it’s his daughter, Ana, whom witnessed the beginning of the project on a whim — walking into her father’s studio, only to see it covered with photos and papers colorfully depicting her grandfather’s life.
This month is the 60th anniversary of Breathitt’s election and inauguration, and his term in office has long been lauded one of the most progressive and successful in the state’s history.
Breathitt’s daughter, Linda, emceed Monday and offered up a short excerpt from her father’s inaugural address.
William Turner, renowned Hopkinsville and Christian County historian noted it was Breathitt who gave him a job all those years ago, following the vision, and later construction, of Hopkinsville Community College.
Former County Attorney Mike Foster remembers one particular evening when he finished high school basketball practice all those years ago, seeing a tremendous crowd at the courthouse. It was Election night, November 5, 1963. Breathitt, the Democratic nominee, had just defeated Republican nominee Louie Nunn by 13,000 votes.
At the back end of Breathitt’s governorship, Foster recollected working through law school at the University of Kentucky, when his schooling and collegian ways distracted him from acquiring an absentee ballot in time to vote.
So, Foster did the only thing he knew to do. He called the governor’s office, and got in touch with Breathitt’s trusted administrative assistant and loyal coworker Barbara Nash — who was in attendance Monday, and admittedly taught Foster “more law than the law books did.”
Nash told Foster to meet the governor’s entourage at the Lexington airport.
Special thanks, Linda noted, had to go to Foster, David Collins, Janice Bruce, and Bill Nichol — the committee members mostly behind the statue’s fruition.
