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Kentucky Stars 2006

Kentucky Stars Home Page

2006 Award Winners

JAMES ALBERT VARNEY JR., BETTER KNOWN AS JIM VARNEY

Born June 15, 1949 was an American actor.
Varney began his interest in theater as a teenager, winning state titles in drama competitions while a student at Lafayette High School (which he graduated from with the class of 1968) in Lexington, Kentucky. At the age of 15, he portrayed Ebenezer Scrooge in a local children's theater production, and by 17, he was performing professionally in nightclubs and coffee houses. He listed a former teacher, Thelma Beeler, as being one of the main contributing factors in his becoming an actor.

He was best known for his character Ernest P. Worrell, originally created by Nashville advertising agency Carden and Cherry in the 1980s. The character was used in numerous television commercial campaigns in the following years.

He was also noted for doing commercials for car dealerships across the country, most notably Cerritos Auto Square in Cerritos, California. Another favorite Ernest vehicle was promotions for various TV stations around the nation, including the news team and the weather departments.

He also lent his voice to the character "Slinky Dog" in Disney's Toy Story film series, and to the character "Cookie" Farnsworth, from Atlantis: The Lost Empire, which was released the year after his death.

Varney provided the guest voice for the carny character "Cooder" for "Bart Carny" episode of The Simpsons.

Varney played the prince that Roseanne's sister Jackie started dating near the end of the 90s television series Roseanne.

Varney also played the part of Jed Clampett in the 1993 production of The Beverly Hillbillies. In addition to his Ernest Goes to... series, he starred in several smaller movies for Carden & Cherry such as Ernest P. Worrell's Family Album, Dr. Otto and the Riddle of the Gloom Beam, and Your World as I See It, all of which showcased his great facility with assuming a wide variety of characters and accents. Just prior to his stint as Ernest P. Worrell, Varney was a cast member on the notorious television flop Pink Lady and Jeff.

Jim Varney died of lung cancer on February 10, 2000 at 4:45 a.m. in his home in White House, Tennessee, as the movie Ernest the Pirate neared completion; he was 50 years old.

The greatest painter that Kentucky has produced, and one whose name has shed no little lustre upon the art annals of America, was Matthew Harris Jouett.

Born in Mercer County, Kentucky, April 22, 1788, the second son of Captain John "Jack" Jouett and his wife Sarah "Sally" Robards.

He was educated at Transylvania College in Lexington. After his graduation from Transylvania, Jouett began to study law under Judge George M. Bibb, Chief Justice of the Appellate Court of Kentucky. Tradition says that his father encouraged him to enter upon a legal career, feeling that this was a respectable and lucrative profession. However, the young artist was always more fascinated with painting than the law, and while he was studying under Judge Bibb in Frankfort, he often spent his leisure hours at the easel. While Jouett was reading law in Frankfort, he worked on miniatures which were widely admired by the local citizens.

After little more than a year under the guidance of Judge Bibb, Jouett removed to Lexington and began to practice law. Not long after he came to Fayette County, he married Margaret "Peggy" Henderson Allen on May 25, 1812.

In the year of his marriage, war with England was declared, and Jouett entered the Third Mounted Regiment of Kentucky Volunteers. He served as a First Lieutenant and was later promoted to the rank of Captain, which he held until his resignation from the army on January 20, 1815. While he was in the service, the payrolls and other valuable papers in his custody were lost during the course of a battle. His deep sense of honor caused him personally to assume the amount of $6,000.00 which was missing, even though this misfortune was not due to any neglect on his part. Only shortly before his death was he able to discharge the debt in full.

Immediately after resigning from the army in January, 1815, Jouett returned to Lexington and opened a studio for painting miniatures and portraits. His reputation as an artist was already established, and being a rapid painter, he was often able to complete three portraits a week at the sum of twenty-five dollars each. In 1817 Jouett went to Boston and studied under the noted Gilbert Stuart. In less than five years from that time, he was celebrated as the best portrait painter west of the Alleghany mountains. His studio in Lexington, was first in a two-story brick building, which formerly stood on Short street, between the Northern Bank and the residence of the late D.A. Sayre. Later, he used a room above the first National Bank on the same street. He painted more than 300 portraits. Among his best pictures are those of Henry Clay, Joseph H. Daviess, Dr. Holley, Major Morrison, Governor Letcher, John J. Crittenden, Isaac Shelby, and the full length portrait of the Marquis Lafayette, now owned by the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The portrait he painted of Henry Clay now hangs in the front foyer at the Ashland Estates. He was Henry Clay’s favorite painter. Today Trasylvania University holds many of his works, as well as the Bottly Bullock House.

Matthew Harris Jouett died in Lexington, August 10, 1827, where he was buried, but in 1893 his body was reinterred in Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky.

MORGAN & MARVIN SMITH

Morgan and Marvin Smith were born on February 16, 1910, to a sharecropper family in Nicholasville, Kentucky. In the late 1920s their family moved to Lexington. As residents of Lexington, Morgan and Marvin Smith attended Paul Laurence Dunbar High School. It was in high school that the twins found the encouragement they needed to pursue their interest in art. During their time at Dunbar, Morgan and Marvin Smith developed their artistic abilities in areas of art ranging from oil paintings to soap sculptures. It was only a matter of time before they began working with Lexington artists Eleanor Pryor and Matthew Archdeacon. It was Archdeacon who provided the brothers with their first camera. Upon graduation from high school in 1933, Morgan and Marvin Smith decided to pursue their art full time. Because Kentucky provided black artists with little or no opportunity for success, the Smith twins decided to continue their work in Cincinnati, but when they reached Cincinnati, they found that the likelihood of success was not much greater than it had been in Lexington. It was then that Morgan and Marvin Smith moved to New York to build their careers in art.

Shortly after Morgan and Marvin Smith arrived in Harlem, they found work with the Works Progress Administration (WPA) performing manual labor. After settling in Harlem, the brothers began taking art lessons from Augusta Savage at her studio on 126th Street. It was through Ms. Savage that the twins came in contact with other prominent artists and began to connect themselves to the famed "306 Group." The talents of Morgan and Marvin Smith were first noticed by the public in 1937 when Morgan won an award for his photograph of a young boy playing hi-li. After 1937, Morgan and Marvin Smith decided to focus their photographic efforts on life in the Harlem community. Unlike many photographers of the time, the twins refused to document the misfortune that existed in Harlem during the 1930s. Instead, they turned their attention to the positive aspects of Harlem and its people.

In 1950, Marvin Smith left Harlem so that he could study under Romare Bearden in Paris. While in Paris, Marvin developed his skills in abstract painting and had the opportunity to meet and work with Pablo Picasso. During Marvin's stay in Paris, Morgan became interested in film and eventually became a sound technician for ABC. When Marvin returned from France in 1952, Morgan taught him about the film industry and Marvin became a sound technician for NBC. Once the Smith brothers began work in the film industry, they concentrated less on their photography. In 1968, Morgan and Marvin Smith closed their Harlem photography studio at 141 West 125th Street.

Morgan and Marvin Smith continued to work in the arts until their retirement in 1975. On February 17, 1993, Morgan Smith died at the age of 83. Today, Marvin Smith died Harlem in 2003 at the age of 93. The Smith brothers were successful in every area of their artistic careers, but they will always be known for their artistic rendering of photographic Harlem.

PHYLLIS JENNESS

Born:  Northboro, Massachusetts, 1922

Education: BS, State Teachers College, Bridgewater, MA, l944;
MA, University of Kentucky, 1958

Timeline:

1944-1948:  Teaching in public schools of West Hartford, CT and Kearney, NJ--science, math

1948-1954:  Vocal study and career singing in New York City--opera, oratorio, recital

1954-1993:  Professor of Voice, University of Kentucky.  During these years, my main occupation was teaching individual voice lessons, but also classes in vocal literature and choral conducting.

1955:   Started opera program at UK, continued to direct this program intermittently until 1976, when full-scale productions began.  From then until 1988 I directed UK Opera Theater with productions of The Marriage of Figaro, Rumpelstiltskin, The Barber of Seville, The Bartered Bride, Falstaff, La Boheme, etc.

1993-1999:   Artistic Director of Opera Of Central Kentucky, with productions of The Medium, The Telephone and a world premiere of Baber's Samson and the Witch.

1954-present:   Singer.  Yearly recitals at UK from 1955-1993.  Many appearances in opera, musicals and oratorio,k 1955-1995.  At present,occasional recitals with ICC
1999-present   Directors' Board of Lexington Opera Society

1958:   Founding director of The Lexington Singers, conductor until 1976.

1965-1976:   Yearly appearances with Cincinnati Symphony.

1994-Present:   Volunteer with Operation Read, teaching English as a Second Language

2004-present:   Volunteer with InterCultural Connections, teaching classes in voice and sight singing.  On Sept. 26, 2006, there will be a Concert to Honor Phyllis Jenness sponsored by ICC.

Other Awards:
Elected to Hall of Fame of UK Friends of Music

RAYMOND F. BETTS

Personal:
Married to Irene D. Donahue, father of three children and grandfather of four. Lexington Resident Since 1971.

Professional Achievements:
Professor of History, University of Kentucky, 1971-1999
Director of the Honors Program, UK, 1978-1990
1978-1990-Founding Director of the Gaines Center for the Humanities, UK, 1983-1998
Professional Activities at the University and in the Community
Author of 11 books, editor of two others; author of 30 professional articles and 60 book reviews
Member, UK Board of Trustees, 1986-1992
Lecturer, Governor’s School for the Arts, 1987
Faculty Participant, Elderhostel Lexington, 1987-1997
Lecturer and Consultant, Governor’s Scholars Program, 1986-1989
Lecturer, Leadership Lexington, 1987-1991, 1994-
Member (1979-1982) and Chair (1982-1983) Kentucky Humanities Council
Board Member, Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning, 1998-2002
Member, Advisory Committee, "Kentucky Encyclopedia," 1989-1992

Media Actvities:
Op-Ed Contributor, Lexington Herald-Leader, 1975-2005
"IdeaFestival" blog, contributions since 2006
"Matters of the Mind," weekly commentary, WUKY-fm, 1988-1997
Television Documentaries Shown on KET: "The Bourgeoisie" (1973);
"Changing Dimensions of Time, Space and Distance" (1976);
"Magic Circle and Sacred Ring" (1979)

Awards and Honors:
UK Alumni Association Great Teachers Award, 1997 and 1998
Distinguished Professor, College of Arts and Sciences, 1985
Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, 1990
Acorn Award for Outstanding Excellence in Service and Commitment to Teaching 1992 
Outstanding Kentucky Humanist Award, Kentucky HumanitiesCouncil 1998 
Recipient of an Honorary Doctorate in the Humanities, University ofKentucky, 2006

SUSAN CARDWELL KINGSLEY

1946: Born in Middlesboro in Bell county
Won Speech Awards in High School
Graduated 1964
Attended UK to major in Agriculture, but switched to drama.
1969: Started working in the Box Office
Earned some small roles and won a position at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in London, England

Roles:
First play at UK: "Tobacco Road"
1977: Arlene in Premiere of Marsha Norman’s "Getting Out"
1978-1979: Appeared in the world premiere of the 78-79 Season of Beth Henley’s Pulitzer Prize winning "Crimes of the Heart"
1981-1982 Vaughn McBride’s "The New Girl: and Ken Jenkins’ "Rupert’s Birthday"
1981-82: One-woman show written for her
1984: Chekhov’s "The Three Sisters"
"The Dollmaker" (With Jane Fonda, Premiered spring of `84)
"Reckless"

Other Films:
"Coal Miner’s Daughter"
"Popeye"

Children: Roxanne Hurt & Garland Hurt

Died in 1984 at age 37; Living in Franklin County, Kentucky with husband David Hurt

MICHAEL JONATHAN

Michael Jonathan is a folksinger, songwriter, concert performer, author ... and now playwright ... who has a worldwide radio audience approaching a million listeners each week. He also created the world’s first multi-camera weekly series broadcast on the Internet.

This ‘Woody Guthrie in a Cyber World” grew up in upstate New York along the shores of the Hudson River. At 19 years old, he moved to the Mexican border town of Laredo, Texas and found a job working as a late night DJ on KLAR-FM. One night, he played Turn, Turn, Turn by the 60’s folkrock group The Byrds. As the song played, he recalled seeing Pete Seeger and Harry Chapin performing in his Dutchess County hometown in New York. By the time the song ended, he decided to pursue a career as a folksinger.

Two months later, he bought a guitar and a banjo and settled into the isolated mountain hamlet of Mousie, Kentucky. For the next three years, he traveled up and down the hollers of the Appalachian mountains knocking on doors and learning the music of the mountain people. Michael experienced hundreds of front porch hootenannies throughout Appalachia where folks would pull out their banjos and fiddles, sit on their front porches with him and play the old songs that their grandparents taught them.

Soon enough, he began performing concerts at hundreds of colleges, schools and fairs. He performed two thousand Earth Concerts, plus benefits for the homeless, farm families, and shelters helping battered women and children. In all, he sang to over two million people in one four-year stretch. Billboard Magazine headlined him as an “UnSung Hero.” He has been featured on CNN, TNN, CMT, AP, Headline News, NPR, Bravo and the BBC.

Aside from touring, writing and recording he continues work on create new projects. A few years ago, Michael released his first book and CD gift set called WoodSongs. The book included the 16-song, all-acoustic WoodSongs compact disc. The musical highlight of the album is a duet of a mountain song titled New Wood that he performs with the legendary Odetta and an eight piece cello section. Other featured musicians on the CD include Grammy winning banjo master JD Crowe, Appalachian icon Jean Ritchie and others.

The success of the WoodSongs book and CD resulted in the creation of radio’s only syndicated live-audience program dedicated to brilliant but unknown artists. The show, called the WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour, is recorded each week before a theatre audience and broadcast on over 460 stations from Australia to Boston to Ireland with well over one million listeners tuning in each week. The multi-media folk program is completely run by volunteers and available as a syndicated radio show plus online streaming, archiving, podcasting and now as a national TV series airing on PBS stations in 2006.

Michael's seventh album, HomeStead was released in 2004 with Sam Bush, Rob Ickes, Ronnie McCoury, Mike Cleveland, John Cowan and banjo master JD Crowe helping out. His live CD was released in 2005, recorded with friends like Sweet Honey In The Rock and others.

The new Evening Song album is an Americana, folk and bluegrass project filled with acoustic guitars, banjos, dobros and mandolins. Some songs are complimented by the rich classical texture of a real 22 piece orchestra section of violins, violas, cellos, and French horns. He calls the musical style Folkestral.

His latest project is the performance theatre script for "WALDEN: The Ballad of Thoreau". It is a two-act, one set, four character play about the final two days Henry David Thoreau spent in his cabin at Walden Pond. For information about the play and script samples visit www.WaldenPlay.com.

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