Rowan County Historical Society

03/13/2026

Historical Photo Friday! Lola Bell Blair and Lillian McGary beautifying Main Street for the Painted Hills Garden Club, May 15, 1981. Photo courtesy Morehead News.

03/11/2026

Historical Extras! Women’s History Month! First Female Newspaper Editor!

In 1972, the Morehead News had a new editor, the first one in 28 years. Betty L. Buchanan Ashurst (1943-2016) assumed the editorship in late October, 1972 with her adult lifetime in newspaper work.

W.E. Crutcher, Publisher of the Morehead News, announced her appointment based on her previous work as city editor for 5 years of the Danville Advocate-Messenger, 2 years as staff writer for the Ashland Daily Independent and almost 4 years in the promotion’s department of the Lexington Herald Leader.

Betty was the wife of Everett Ashurst (1938-2012), who was Morehead District Manager of Morehead Telephone and they have one daughter Scarlet.

For almost three decades, W.E. Crutcher had been both publisher and editor of the Morehead News. After a heart attack in April 1973, he decided to slow down but maintained an active capacity with the Morehead News and allied businesses.

Crutcher was owner of all the stock of the Morehead News, Greenup News, Grayson Journal Enquirer, Birthday Calendar Company and Morehead Publishing Company. Ronald J. Caudill was General Manager of all the publishing and printing companies that Crutcher owned and was later Editor and Manager.

Betty enjoyed a 22-year career in the newspaper business working in the promotions department for the Herald Leader from 1962 to 1965, transferring over to the Ashland Daily where she was a staff writer between 1965 and 1967. Later that year, she became city editor of the Danville Advocate where she remained until 1972.
Between 1972 and 1984, Betty was editor of Morehead News. From 1984 to 1990, she worked in sales for R.L. Polk Directories and GTE yellow pages. However, Betty spent the last 25 years working for the Edward Gage Company, an interior design firm. She was a charter member, former club president, and publicity chairman of the Lancaster Woman's Club, as well as a member of Central Christian Church.

Betty and Everett divorced in 1974 and was married to Ronald J. Caudill from 1974-1983 and was later married William L. Lamb (1931-1995) in 1989, owner of Phoenix Oil Production Company in Lexington, KY.

Betty Buchanan Lamb died December 25, 2016 in Nicholasville, Kentucky.

Sources
November 2, 1972 Morehead News
Lexington Herald Leader July 20, 1995
https://www.altogetherfuneral.com/.../betty.../december-2016
Ancestry.com, Findagrave.com

03/04/2026

Historical Extras! Women’s History Month! Morehead’s First Female Attorney!
Marie Allison became the first female attorney in Rowan County with the Northeast Kentucky Legal Services, Inc, a six county legal aid program funded by the Federal Office of Economic Opportunity. She obtained her Juris Doctorate degree in 1972 from the University of Kentucky College of Law.
Following law school, she was employed as staff-attorney with the legal services project and worked in the programs main office in Grayson. She was also the first woman lawyer in in Grayson. She replaced Attorney Terry Anderson who left the program in April to enter private practice. Robert L. Caummisar, director of the program, and who announced the transfer noted that he believes Ms. Allison’s experience in the Grayson office has qualified her to perform high quality legal work on behalf of the residents of Rowan and Morgan Counties.
Ms. Allison maintained a full time office in Morehead at 120 Normal Avenue. A part time office was located in West Liberty for seeing clients on Wednesdays. She became the fourth attorney to operate the Morehead-West Liberty offices for the program in it’s six year history. She followed Attorneys Davis Short, Gary Conn and Terry Anderson. Approximately 2,000 people visited the offices between 1967-1973.
Serving on the legal services program Board of Directors in Rowan and Morgan Counties were Circuit Judge Ralph Walter, Attorney Elijah Hogge, Charles Waddell and Walter Blevins.
Ms. Allison was a native of Indiana and moved to Lexington to attend the University of Kentucky. She moved to Morehead when she obtained the Grayson job. While attending UK, she worked for the Community Action program and through that program, she became interested in law.
Ms. Allison stated that she was pleased with the male response and treated her as a co-attorney and equal and were very helpful when needed. There were approximately 125 students in her graduating class with only 6 females. Two, along with Ms. Allison, asre practing in Kentucky and the other three are out of state.
Ms. Allison moved to Lexington in 1977 where she is still continuing her law practice. She was admitted to practice law in the U.S. Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit in 1974 and
U.S. Supreme Court in 1998.
Sources
June 7, 1973 Morehead News
https://www.lawyers.com/.../margaret-marie-allison.../
Ancestory.com

02/27/2026

Historical Photo Friday! First Street (Railroad Street) in the 1940's. The big red building in the center left is now the Folk Art Center. Photo courtesy Art Stewart Collection and colorized by Louis Stewart.

02/20/2026

Historical Photo Friday! 1956 Centennial Parade, Main Street. Cute house that is now part of Eagle Car lot. Main Street used to be full of beautiful homes and trees. Photo courtesy Anne Buckner.

02/13/2026

Historical Photo Friday! 1956 Centennial Parade, Main Street. The white building on the left burned and was later Pasquales and now Fat Patties! Photo courtesy Anne Buckner.

02/06/2026

Historical Photo Friday! Pelphrey's Department Store, Main Street, Morehead, across the street from Bishops Drug. I think there was a Pelphrey's later in the McKinney building too, maybe where Layne's Mens Store building.
Photo courtesy of 1981 Rowan County Yearbook.

01/30/2026

Historical Photo Friday! Frontier Steak House, 426 East Main Street. The location is possibly near where the downtown Dairy Queen is now -maybe in the middle of the road connecting Main Street to the Bypass, near Larry Fannin car lot, now Eagle Chevrolet lot. Photo courtesy Rowan County yearbook. Date unknown.

01/22/2026

01/16/2026

Historical Photo Friday! Mountaineer House Restaurant! This building was many different restaurants including Kentucky Fried Chicken and the Brass Eagle. The building was razed several years ago and was a parking lot and it now becoming a multipurpose building on the Morehead State University campus. Ad from the Morehead News, October 8, 1970.

01/09/2026

Correction - It was Hot Rod Guitar Shop not Chris's Guitar Shop.

Historical Photo Friday! The original Morehead Dairy Queen, prior to 1968 when it expanded. Owned by Jack and Mary Powell, sold to Jim and Lynn Glass in the early 1980's? The building was sold in early 2000's and has been several businesses, the most popular was Chris's Guitar Shop. Photo courtesy Morehead News, date unknown.

01/07/2026

Historical Extras! Lee Cemetery History

James D. Reeder, Author.

Morehead’s beautiful and historic Lee Cemetery is – so far as we know- the community’s oldest extant burial ground, with the earliest dated interment having occurred in 1843. Both Pine Hill Cemetery, overlooking Bays and Knapp Avenues and the Old Town Cemetery found behind the Catholic Church were first used years earlier, in 1859 and the 1870’s respectively. The Lee Cemetery, in use at least 13 years before Rowan County was formed in 1856, is named for Lewis D. Lee, a Fleming County native, whose family relocated to Kentucky from Pennsylvania after the American Revolution. Lee was born in 1802, and on November 18, 1822 he married a Fleming County girl named Rebecca Rice. Some records give her last name as Royse or Royce, however.

Lewis Lee obtained a land grant for 200 acres along the east fork of Triplett Creek, then in Fleming County, and the cemetery began as a small family graveyard on the Lee Farm. Lewis and Rebecca had at least nine children (identified in the 1850 census), some of whom remained in Rowan County, with others relocating elsewhere. Rebecca Lee died in 1880, at age 74. Defying the life expectancy odds, the time, Lewis lived until 1889, looked after by one of his sons. The Lees are buried in the oldest section of the cemetery near the southeast corner.

Sometime after the original Lee farm was sold, the cemetery portion of the property was acquired by William Neal Nickell (1858-1928), a grandson of pioneer Isabella Oxley. Nickell expanded the cemetery to include much of its present dimensions except for the uppermost section, which was purchased from Charles Holbrook in the early 1950’s. What began as a quarter-acre family plot on Lewis Lee’s farm more than 180 years ago has become a sacred space in the community landscape.