Category Archives: Uncategorized

Scott Greene, Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy & Business Development for Fruit of the Loom, Inc., gave a talk on the evening of Thursday, April 9, 2015 at the Barnes & Noble Bookstore in Bowling Green, KY for the WKU Libraries-sponsored “Kentucky Live!” speaker series. He talked about Fruit of the Loom as one of the nation’s oldest brands.

According to Mr. Greene, Warren Buffet acquired Fruit of the Loom for $835 million as a Berkshire Hathaway Company in 2002, and since then has acquired various brands including Activewear, Jerzees® Activewear, Vanity Fair®, Bestform®, Lily of France, Lou® Paris, Curvation, Spalding, Dudley® Sports, American Athletic, Inc., Bike, and Russell Athletic.

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Mount Union Baptist Church Minutes – Green County, Kentucky

Stella Hill of Louisville recently donated a minute book from Mount Union Baptist Church in Summersville, Green County, Kentucky to the collections of the Manuscripts & Folklife Archives unit of the Department of Library Special Collections.  The minutes from church business meetings chronicle the church’s history from 1898 to 1921.  The minute book also contains membership lists and financial information related to the church.

Mount Union was established, like many African American churches in the region, soon after the Civil War ended.  After completion of their new church building in 1868, the Liberty Church of Dezarn, Kentucky, donated their old log building to African Americans in the immediate vicinity.  These blacks had been members of Jacob Grove Baptist Church in Summersville, Kentucky.  They worshipped in the log structure until they purchased ten acres one mile northeast of the Liberty Church in order to construct a new building.  This new structure burned around 1907, so the congregation erected a new church.

Along with the donation of the minute book, Ms. Hill donated a photograph of her parents, Richard F. & Margaret “Maggie” Owens.  Interestingly, Mr. Owens served as church clerk for many years and you can find his beautiful penmanship throughout the minute book.

Richard F. & Margaret “Maggie” Owens. Mr. Owens was church clerk at Mount Union for many years.

The Manuscripts & Folklife Archives houses records for a large number of churches in south central Kentucky.  To see finding aids related to these records, click here.

Brent Fisk, a circulation and information assistant from WKU’s Visual and Performing Arts Library and his wife Holly Hedden, a former library assisant of the WKU Libraries’ Educational Resources Center and now reference and technical services manager from the Warren County Public Library in Bowling Green, KY have made a trip to several of the significant cities in Italy including Rome, Florence, and Naples. On the morning of Tuesday, March 24, 2015, he shared their trip with his colleagues of the WKU Libraries in Cravens 111. His presentation was part of the Libraries’ “We’ve Been Everywhere” speaker series designed for library employees to share their world trip experiences with their peers in line with the university’s goal of building it into one of international reach.

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After speaking at the Gary Ransdell Hall on WKU campus as part of the “Tracing the Unexplored: An Ecuadorian Tapestry” series in the afternoon of March 26, 2015, Ecuador’s most famous “caricaturist” Xavier Bonilla,  also known as “Bonil,” spoke for the WKU Libraries-sponsored “Far Away Places” speaker series off campus at the Barnes & Noble Bookstore in Bowling Green on the evening of the same day.

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     In honor of Wendell Ford’s years of service to Kentucky and the United States, WKU Library Special Collections opens a case exhibit on President’s Day (February 16, 2015) which will be available to visitors until May 15, 2015 in the Harrison-Baird Reading Room of the Kentucky Building. The exhibit includes bumper stickers, campaign pins, a license plate, an emery board, photographs, invitations, a necktie, a toy shovel, a Christmas card, a campaign poster, and a Louisville Stoneware saucer.
Wendell Hampton Ford served as chief assistant to the Kentucky Governor from 1959-61; thus beginning, his forty-year fight for Kentuckians that included years in the state senate (1965-67), as lieutenant governor (1967-71), as Kentucky governor (1971-74), and as United States senator (1978-93). A Democrat, Ford was the first person to be elected successively lieutenant governor, governor and U. S. senator from Kentucky. He was only the second 20th century lieutenant governor who, as a Democrat, served under a Republican governor.
In his state of the commonwealth address, Governor Ford stressed the need for government to be reorganized, more responsible and more representative. No Kentucky legislative bill Governor Ford supported failed to pass and he vetoed several measures. As United States Senator, he served as Democratic Whip (1991-99), chairman, Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences (1977-78), Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (1977-82), Select Committee to Study the Committee System (1983-84), Committee on Rules and Administration (1987-94), Joint Committee on Printing (1989-1994).

Wendell Ford fought for Kentuckians.