By Steve Flairty
NKyTribune columnist

In my neverending quest to be taught some extra concerning the state of Kentucky, I learn continuously concerning the topic, usually having three to 4 books going. That’s along with journal and Web articles, occasional podcasts, and speaking with educated buddies and associates.

Listed here are a number of the newest Kentucky tidbits I’ve found and want to share:

• I got here throughout an article in The Kentucky Explorer about Kentuckian Woody Fryman. He was a pitcher within the main leagues for eighteen seasons, together with a stint with the Reds. Woody grew up in Fleming County on a tobacco farm, and he remained all his life a farmer at coronary heart. Woody advised interviewer Donald Curtis in a 1988 interview, “Farming was and is my past love, baseball is second.”

He completed his baseball profession with a report of 141-155 and a decent earned run common of three.77. He helped the Montreal Expos and Detroit Tigers get to post-season play. He was traded by the Expos to the Reds, however in the course of the 1977 season, introduced his retirement from the Reds and left for his farm in Fleming County.

Based on Curtis’s article, Woody couldn’t get together with Sparky Anderson, the Corridor of Fame supervisor, who later discovered success with the Detroit Tigers. The pitcher’s retirement was short-lived, nonetheless, and he returned to baseball with the Chicago Cubs in 1978. Yet another cease took him to the Expos once more, and he stayed till 1983, when, he mentioned, his “arm popped” in the course of the yr.

It was again to Ewing, in Fleming County, and farm life once more. Sadly, Woody died in 2011 after affected by Alzheimer’s. He’s buried within the lovely Elizaville Cemetery, in Fleming County, the place the physique of Franklin Sousley, often called one of many iconic American soldier flagbearers at Iwo Jima can be buried.

Be aware that with the 1970 Topps Phillies baseball card for Fryman, his first title is spelled “Woodie” somewhat than “Woody.”

• Dr. Nathaniel Burger Shaler, born in Newport in 1841, in keeping with Jack Wessling, turned “the preferred professor at Harvard College within the nineteenth century.” He additionally served because the state geologist of Kentucky within the 1800s. There’s way more about him in Paul Tenkotte’s February 3, 2020, article within the Northern Kentucky Tribune. It’s good studying.

• The “wily” coyote appears to be considerably interested in our state and presumably rising in quantity. Author and hunter Mark Reese, a resident of Estill County, features a chapter on coyotes in his new guide, A Life’s Journey Outside, and recounts a number of confrontations whereas looking together with his canine.

Moreover, a number of of my neighbors in Woodford County advised me that they noticed coyotes in our space. I preserve my eyes open for them however don’t recall seeing any.

“Usually, they don’t seem to be a menace to people, however they’ve been recognized to assault free-roaming or staked pets,” mentioned Reese.

• In what some People may notice as a “not dangerous for a Kentucky boy” reality, Arthur Krock can rightfully take his place as “one of many nice figures of journalism,” said the New York Occasions at his demise in 1974. Born in 1886 in Glasgow, Kentucky, Krock spent 60 years as a reporter, editor, and columnist.

Early in his profession, Krock reported for the Louisville Herald, however later gained nice renown working on the New York Occasions. He gained 4 Pulitzer Prizes in his chosen discipline, and in 1970, was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his lofty profession work.

Pamela Draper along with her guide, Cramped in a Crookle (Picture supplied)

• Pamela Draper, a Lexington educator, is happy with her youngsters’s guide, Cramped in a Crookle, which she revealed proper earlier than Covid-19 hit.

The guide, she defined, is “illustrated by an extremely gifted artist, Sophia Hines Schumaker. My ardour for kids’s books started on the onset of parenthood and our firstborn was however a toddler when this script met the web page. Cramped in a Crookle targets youngsters ages zero to eight and consists of 64 colourful pages in a 9 by twelve landscaped aqueous smooth contact lined guide.”

Apart from the colourful pics and enjoyable, rhythmic prose, Pamela’s guide has an amazing message: Be brave and keen to step out of your private security zone… then observe your goals!

Get your copy by visiting her web site www.pdraper.com.

Steve Flairty is a instructor, public speaker and an creator of seven books: a biography of Kentucky Afield host Tim Farmer and 6 within the Kentucky’s On a regular basis Heroes sequence, together with a children’ model. Steve’s “Kentucky’s On a regular basis Heroes #5,” was launched in 2019. Steve is a senior correspondent for Kentucky Month-to-month, a weekly NKyTribune columnist and a former member of the Kentucky Humanities Council Audio system Bureau. Contact him at sflairty2001@yahoo.com or go to his Fb web page, “Kentucky in Widespread: Phrase Sketches in Tribute.” (Steve’s picture by Connie McDonald)