100 YEARS AGO — 1919

 

Sixty children who were recommended by the social service workers in Danville will have a Christmas party hosted by the Y.M.C.A. at Kentucky College for Women. It will be a regular Christmas party, with all the trimmings — the tree decorated, popcorn balls and oranges will furnish the gastronomical entertainment for the tiny visitors.

 

Miss Gertrude Wilkerson, who was secretly married to Dewey Metcalf in Danville on July 25, has the distinction of being the only bride of Lincoln County to issue her own license, because she is deputy county clerk. The marriage was kept a secret until the announcement was made today.

 

Notice: After Dec. 17 all barber shops in Danville will close promptly at 7:30, except on Saturdays when they will be open until 11 p.m. On account of high prices of their supplies, the barbers are also forced to raise the price of shaves to 20 cents.

 

The schedule for the 1920 games of Centre College’s great football team is almost made up and includes Harvard at Cambridge, Massachusetts and Georgia Tech at Atlanta, Georgia, Transylvania University, DePauw and Kentucky State at Lexington.

 

Ed Goode, son of S.G. Goode, keeper of the Danville workhouse, is in town after spending 15 years wandering around the country. This is the first visit to see his father during the entire time. Goode said he has held a thousand different jobs and has practiced a dozen different trades, chiefly in the mechanical line. He is now qualified as an expert mechanic. He is 33 years old and has been away from home since he was 18. Goode traveled a great deal recently in a speedster of a popular make, which was made to order specially for him. He drove from Oregon to Illinois in the car, then shipped it on to Virginia, where he intends to buy a farm and settle down.

 

75 YEARS AGO — 1944

 

A veteran hero of at least six invasions in several major campaigns of World War II is spending a few days in Danville while on furlough. He is Elwood G. Roberts, son of D.F. Roberts of Harding Street. He has been awarded the Purple Heart for wounds suffered while overseas in the U.S. Army. He was a member of a Tank battalion with the Seventh Army serving under General Patton.

 

There are Victory Gardens in the states, but the members of a 7th Army Air Forces Heavy Bomber group based in the Palaus call their vegetable gardens on the island, Demobilization plantations, a name originated by Technical Sergeant Leslie Mayes of Perryville. T-Sgt. Mayes’ tent-mates cleared a plot of jungle growth and developed a sizeable backyard garden of lettuce, cucumbers, sweet corn, beets, celery and carrots. Mayes is a former farm supervisor with the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture in Bardstown, and he decided that since victory means demobilization to the fighting men, their vegetable plots should be called just that. Appointed agriculture advisor to the bombardment group, Mayes supervised his men in the cultivation of dozens of garden plts. The mess sergeants are planning to serve fresh vegetables for other holidays, after having tried them successfully on Thanksgiving Day. The sergeant’s mother, Mrs. R.C. Mayes lives in Perryville. Mayes attended high school there and graduated in 1933 from the University of Kentucky. His brother, Robert Mayes, is a seaman first class in the U.S. Navy.

 

Effective at 6 o’clock tonight, the Blue Grass Taxi and Garage Company and the Black and White Taxicab company will lay up their cabs because of failure of their appeal to the OPA for additional gasoline. The officials stated that service will resume as soon as their efforts to obtain more gasoline are successful.

 

An old-fashioned pie supper, sponsored by the Junction City Council, will be held to raise money for the purchase of raincoats, hats, boots and gas masks for the community fire department

 

50 YEARS AGO — 1969

 

Danville has hired its first “Meter Maid.” She is Mrs. Dwayne (Ilene) Holderman. She will be responsible for the enforcement of the parking regulations in the downtown section. She succeeds Sgt. Louis Cox, who will work on a cruiser until his retirement next year. Mrs. Holderman said that one of her best girl friends in a Meter Maid in Corbin, and that she has become so interested in the profession that she would have been very, very disappointed if she had not been placed in such a position here.

 

James Walter Jones, 47, of Russell Street, and a well-known barber at the City Barbershop on Main Street for 20 years and was the front man for the past two years, died unexpectedly. Jones had coached in Little League baseball and football leagues. One of his hobbies was turtle hunting and at one time had served several regular Lexington customers who bought the turtles he caught in this area

 

The Danville Marching Admirals Band will be the subject of a 30-minute color television special to be broadcast on Channel 62 in January. “The Admiral Story” will include their upcoming performance at the 1969 Tangerine Bowl Classic. The success story of the Admirals, which one metropolitan newspaper called a “rags to riches” saga, began two years ago with new programs instituted by director William Gravely.

 

25 YEARS AGO — 1994

 

Magistrate Mike Montgomery told the Boyle County Fiscal Court he thinks it’s time for the county to go its own way on a park. Montgomery proposed the county provide playing fields and leave it to the city to build a swimming pool and passive park areas.

 

Danville’s neighborhood elementary schools would be kept intact under a plan approved by the city district’s facility planning committee. The plan includes a priority list of millions of dollars worth of renovations to keep the three elementaries and the middle and high school in compliance with building codes and the requirements of the Kentucky Education Reform Act. At one point the committee was leaning toward construction of a single primary school but backed away from the idea due to intense opposition from parents and other citizens.