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Graduation Day 2014 was Saturday and Shelby's seniors celebrated with joys and tears.

1782 – “The Year of Blood”
Marked for death, with faces painted black, Dr. John Knight and his commanding officer, Col. William Crawford, awaited their fate. As described in my previous column, Crawford was burned at the stake with Knight being forced to watch the ordeal.
Dr. Knight managed to survive by escaping from his captors, making his way back to Fort Pitt “in the Most Deplorable Condition Man could be in and be alive.”

As Kentucky starts to take shape as a part of Virginia, life on the frontier, including in what is today Shelby County, remained difficult and dangerous.

I set out to write this series of columns as a chronology of early Kentucky history, basically a routine list of dates and events, milestones in time. I now realize that some events are of such significance, or unusual character, that they cry out for amplification. I have answered the cry!

1780

Though Saturday dawned cool and cloudy, the sound of children’s laughter at Red Orchard Park warmed the souls of those in attendance for Bunny Days.

Shelby County Parks and Recreation Director Shawn Pickens glanced around at the 200 children and adults who bundled up against chilly morning temperatures to hunt eggs and find prizes.

“We’re down a little from last year, because it’s so cool, but all in all, I think it’s going really well,” he said.

If the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, then Cherry Settle must have a claim on her husband Tommy’s heart for the next millennium.

The couple’s beautiful 144-year-old antebellum-style home on Shelbyville Road, where they have resided for the past four decades and raised their two children, Jennifer and Tommy Jr., was the former residence of Col. Harland Sanders and his wife, Claudia.

And while changes occur over forty years, the Settles could never change one thing that helped launch an American icon.

The wind in her hair, with sounds of the most dangerous animals on earth roaring in her ears on the plains of Africa, Marty Mason of Bagdad has proven time and again why she ranked among the top five in the international Extreme Huntress competition last year.

Her home in Bagdad, where she lives with her husband, Bob, features a trophy room the couple built after they discovered the joys of big-game hunting in Africa in 2008, and the walls are adorned with dozens of trophies from zebra to hippo to antelope.

For the fourth year in a row, animal lovers turned out in droves to pack Claudia Sanders Dinner House to raise money for animals.

“Are we sold out – are you kidding?” said Kate Raisor, glancing around at the horde of 350-plus patrons, mostly decked out in various hues of red, pink and black, milling around the banquet room Friday night.

In my previous column I described my responsibilities as commanding general of the Landing Force Training Unit, Pacific, with my offices in Coronado Calif., and my quarters in San Diego.

My mission here was to provide teams of Marines to train our allies throughout the Far East in the Marine Corps’ specialty: amphibious operations.

During Oct. 9-25, 1965, I took my third trip to the Far East to inspect my deployed instructional teams. Marine battalions had landed in Vietnam by this time and were engaged with the Viet Cong.

My last column described my duties and experiences as national director of the Marine Corps Reserve. While stationed at Marine Headquarters in Washington D.C., I traveled widely in the United States to inspect my reserve units.

In March 1964, I was transferred across the country to Coronado, Calif., to assume command of the Landing Force Training Unit, Pacific. My mission here was to provide teams of Marines to train our allies throughout the Far East in the Marine Corps’ specialty: amphibious operations.