For more information:
• John Taylor Jr., 1301 Hagen Road, Louisville, Ky. 40223, email: john.taylor61@gmail.com
• Buffalo Soldiers National Museum

Producer: Brandon Wickey
Audio: Chuck Burgess

Buffalo Soldiers of Louisville

They Ride With Pride

John Taylor Jr. of Louisville runs a camp every summer about the Buffalo Soldiers, the U.S. Army regiments formed in 1866 that were made up of African-American soldiers. Beyond teaching African-American youth about the Buffalo Soldiers, Taylor hopes to instill in his camp participants feelings of self-confidence, trust, kindness, and a fierce pride in the achievements of their ancestors.

Cheyenne warriors who encountered African-American soldiers on the Great Plains were impressed with their fighting skills and respectfully referred to them as “Buffalo Soldiers.” The term came to be used to refer to all African-American soldiers who served in segregated Army units through World War II.

For more information:
• Magee’s Bakery, 8188 Orangeburg Road, Maysville, Ky., 41056

Producer: Valerie Trimble
Videographer: Jason Robinson
Audio: Chuck Burgess
Editor: Jim Piston

Magee’s Bakery

Easy as Pie?

Maysville’s Magee’s Bakery is known worldwide as the home of the Transparent Pie. Dave discovers all there is to know about this pie, which is considered the basis for pecan pie and chess pie.

Transparent Pie goes back to frontier days. In keeping with that era, Dave travels to the bakery on a wagon pulled by a team of Percheron draft horses.

The folks at Magee’s, who have been making and selling Transparent Pie for 60 years, teach Dave how to mix, shape and bake the pie. The pie ingredients are simple ones that frontier families would have on hand when no fruits or nuts were available: milk, butter, eggs, sugar, flour and salt. No refrigeration is required, another plus in frontier times.

Bakery owners Judy and Ronald Dickson say they have mailed pies all over the world.

For more information:
• meetmeinmidway.com

Producer: Dave Shuffett
Videographer: Amelia Cutadean
Editor: Dan Taulbee

Our Town—Midway

We travel to Midway, named purposefully for its location midway between Lexington and Frankfort and Georgetown and Versailles. The town was founded in 1835 when farmland owned by Col. John Francisco was sold to the Lexington and Ohio Railroad Company, making Midway Kentucky’s first railroad town.

Evidence of the past is all around. Many homes and businesses in Midway are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Midway is also home to Weisenberger Mill, the oldest continuously operating mill in Kentucky.

The town is a thriving center for education and arts. Midway College, Kentucky’s only college for women, began as the Kentucky Female Orphan School in 1846. The Francisco’s Farm Arts Festival at Midway College is a popular outdoor exhibition of juried fine art and fine craft. The town also boasts its own theater, the Thoroughbred Theatre, renovated in 2004.

For more information:
• Kentucky Book Fair

Producer: Tom Thurman
Videographers: Dave Dampier, Amelia Cutadean
Audio: Noel Depp
Editor: Dan Taulbee

The Kentucky Book Fair

Celebrating the Word

Late each fall, Frankfort is home to the Kentucky Book Fair, one of the largest, oldest and certainly one of the best book fairs in the entire country. Kentucky writers from all genres, ranging from poetry to cookbooks, join noted authors from every region in the nation to present and promote their work, as well as meet face-to-face with their reading public.

Sponsored by the The State Journal in Frankfort and co-sponsored by the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives and the University Press of Kentucky, the fair began in 1981. Book fair organizers say typically about 150 authors and 5,000 patrons attend the fair, with gross sales annually topping $120,000.