Saving Stories

Doug Boyd, director of the Nunn Center for Oral History in the UK Libraries shares audio from a recent interview with Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton reflecting on the years-long team effort to celebrate the city's 250th anniversary.

October 28, the Lyric Theatre in Lexington's East End neighborhood celebrated 15 years of rebirth. The current iteration of the arts and cultural center was officially reopened in 2010. In a 2015 UK Nunn Center oral history interview local activist Tom Tolliver talks about the effort to revitalize the Lyric, which had been shuttered since 1963; a result of the end of city-wide desegregation of public spaces. At first Tolliver was not on board with the idea and he describes what actions changed his mind.

October 17 is an important day in the history of WUKY. The station formerly known as WBKY signed on for the first time on October 17, 1940. To mark the station's 85th anniversary, this special edition of Saving Stories with Dr. Doug Boyd from the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History in the UK Libraries, features an interview with Ruth Foxx Newborg, the first program director of the Beattyville, KY radio station.

Saving Stories returns with a fresh episode on the integration of baseball. Not the Jackie Robinson story but another event that happened right here in Lexington. Nunn Center director Dr. Doug Boyd shares audio from an oral history interview with Lexington native Bobby Flynn, who in 1947 helped the Lexington Hustlers become the first integrated baseball team in the South. Flynn was white but had been rejected by the white teams because he was small. In the interview Bobby Flynn tells the story of being asked by manager John 'Scoop' Brown to join the Negro League team, and the reaction from members of the local white community.

WUKY's Saving Stories celebrates Bourbon Heritage Month with this special episode. Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History Director Dr. Doug Boyd shares this 1991 interview with Frederick Booker Noe II, who discusses the bourbon industry and the history of Jim Beam. The Nunn Center has conducted more than one hundred bourbon-related interviews spanning generations of famous personalities, but it wasn't until recently that Boyd and staff discovered this rare conversation between Noe and a Kentucky middle school student. The interviews were part of an educational media project under the direction of Henderson County North Middle School teacher Roy Pullam.

This week marks the 80th anniversary of the US bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki which essentially brought about the end of World War II. In this special edition of Saving Stories Doug Boyd, director of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History in the UK Libraries shares an interview from a survivor of the bombing of Nagasaki.

As 250 Lex continues to celebrate Lexington's culinary traditions this month, we're highlighting this interview with Mamadou Savane. In 2018 the Nunn Center collaborated with Vanessa Grossl to interview immigrant entrepreneurs. The resulting project was called Savor, immigrant entrepreneur oral history project. Grossl conducted 20 interviews, many of which were conducted with food entrepreneurs here in Lexington. One of those individuals was Mamadou Savane. Better known to all of us as Sav. He talks about opening his West African restaurant (Sav's Grill) and starting a side ice cream business (Sav's Chill) that eventually became his primary venture which today we know as Sav's Gourmet Ice Cream.

250 Lex is celebrating our culinary traditions. WUKY's Saving Stories serves up this behind the scenes look at Lexington's role in launching the Long John Silver's Fish 'n Chips restaurant chain. The very first Seafood Shoppe was located on Southland Drive. In 2009, the Nunn Center worked with Mike Hammonds to interview Warren Rosenthal; the business entrepreneur credited with taking the experimental fast food concept nationwide.

The Lexington Legends baseball team has seen its share of ups and downs – including a head-scratching name change (anybody remember the Counter Clocks?) But now as the city gets ready to celebrate 25 seasons of professional baseball, WUKY’s Saving Stories has this look back at how it all began. Nunn Center for Oral History director Dr. Doug Boyd shares audio from a 2019 interview with Alan Stein, who along with other prominent members of the community, led an effort to bring minor league baseball to Lexington. In this portion of the conversation Stein recalls a literal 11th hour curveball his group had to handle before presenting its best case to an MLB franchise expansion committee. It’s a story you have to hear to believe.

It’s Final Four weekend and sadly the Kentucky Wildcats came up short this year in their bid for a 9th national title. Bookending our look back at special moments in UK basketball history WUKY’s Saving Stories highlights another famous shot, the one Duke’s Christian Laettner hit in overtime against the Wildcats in the 1992 East Regional final in Philadelphia. The buzzer beater marked the end of an era for the team affectionately known as “The Unforgettables.” Nunn Center director Doug Boyd shares interviews with UK players Sean Woods – who hit the Wildcats’ go-ahead basket with two seconds on the clock, and John Pelphrey, one of the defenders responsible for guarding Laettner on the long inbounds pass; a split-second moment that he admits misremembering. Doug even shares a clip of a song he wrote about the game and the aftermath called 1992.

For three quarters of a century the month of March in Kentucky has been tournament time with hoops fever reaching a near fever pitch. And if you're wondering why UK Basketball is sometimes considered an official religion, we submit this audio as exhibit A. In this special episode of WUKY's Saving Stories, UK Nunn Center director Dr. Doug Boyd and Deirdre Scaggs, associate dean and head of Special Collections, join Alan Lytle to re-live one of the most dramatic moments in UK Basketball history called by the legendary sports broadcaster Claude Sullivan; a thrilling triple overtime win over Temple University in Memorial Coliseum. All made possible by the recently deceased Hall of Famer Vernon Hatton who hit THE SHOT. RIP Mr. Hatton.

Lexington is celebrating its 250th anniversary this year, and Saving Stories is shining the spotlight today on lifelong educator and activist Audrey Grievous. In this 1985 UK Nunn Center oral history interview Grevious talks about her involvement in demonstrations and lunch counter sit-in's in downtown Lexington in the early 1960's.

WUKY's Saving Stories remembers former Keeneland president and trustee Ted Bassett who passed away last week at the age of 103. In the summer of 2019, the Nunn Center and the UK Libraries partnered with Keeneland, the Keeneland Association, Keeneland Library and Museum Foundation, and the Thoroughbred Daily News to conduct a series of oral history interviews called Life's Work. And one of the first interviews released was an interview with Ted Bassett. In this highlighted section Bassett reflects on the tension that exists between tradition and innovation, especially when he first came to work at Keeneland. He explains why it wasn't always easy to bring modern touches to the traditional venue and why Keeneland's place in the industry will always be unique and special.

Lexington is about to turn 250 years old in the year 2025, and Saving Stories will be featuring a number of familiar voices from our community. Jump starting that look back is this episode featuring former Vice Mayor Isabel Yates. The Nunn Center interviewed Yates in 1996 for a project involving members of the Lexington Fayette Urban County local government. Listen as she details how she got involved in local politics and talks about a number of then pressing issues that seem all too relevant today - especially issues of growth versus preservation. Isabel Yates celebrated her 100th birthday this past October.

In this Veterans Day segment of WUKY’s Saving Stories Nunn Center Director Dr. Doug Boyd and Alan Lytle discuss an unlikely pairing between a researcher in Italy and the family of a World War II soldier from Campbellsville, Kentucky.

Horses are running again at Keeneland and in this episode of WUKY’s Saving Stories we hear from one of the first, and one of the most successful, African American horse trainers in the modern era. In this 1986 Nunn Center interview, Oscar Dishman Jr. reflects on his rise from exercise boy / groom, his decision to become a horse trainer in 1960, and the challenges he had to overcome on his way to the top of his field. Training the winning horses for the 1973 Michigan Mile, Ohio Derby, Hawthorne Stakes, and the Widener Handicap (1977-1978) are among the highlights of his career for which he was awarded the Black Achievement Award in Lexington.

It's Olympics time again and in this edition of WUKY's Saving Stories we hear from NBC Olympics sportscaster and native Lexingtonian Tom Hammond. Doug Boyd, director of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History in the UK Libraries shares audio from an interview with Hammond. He talks about one his most memorable moments from the 2000 games in Sydney, Australia. Aboriginal sprinter Cathy Freeman first had the honor of lighting the Olympic torch to open the games, then ten nights later she won 400 meters gold in a most dramatic fashion. Hammond, who called the action in 13 Olympic Games, was behind the microphone that historic day.

This Thursday marks the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion in Normandy, France. Doug Boyd from the Nunn Center for Oral History in the UK Libraries shares audio from a 1994 interview with Garrard County native Jesse Beazley who was among the first wave of soldiers that fought their way onto Omaha Beach that fateful day.

Over our 15-year collaboration with the UK Libraries’ Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, WUKY’s Saving Stories has brought you numerous Kentucky Derby themed segments featuring the likes of Eddie Arcaro, Penny Chenery, W.T. Young and Arthur B. Hancock III. This week to celebrate Derby 150, Center Director Doug Boyd and Alan Lytle continue that tradition by returning to a 2019 interview with another story by Hancock. In this part of the conversation the Stone Farm horse breeder and owner talks about how he used the Pythagorean theorem to calculate the perfect ride for eventual winner Gato Del Sol in the 1982 Kentucky Derby. Until that day no horse from the far outside had ever won the signature race. It's a similar scenario 5-2 morning line favorite Fierceness is facing this Saturday.

WUKY's Saving Stories commemorates the sixtieth anniversary of the March for Civil Rights in Frankfort. On March 5, 1964 thousands came toKentucky's Capitol to hear from Martin Luther King, baseball great Jackie Robinson, folk group Peter, Paul and Mary, and rally support for a public accommodations bill. To celebrate Women's History Month, Nunn Center Director Dr. Doug Boyd shares audio from three recent interviews with local women who participated in the event on that historic day.