Jesse Stuart's 100th Birthday

This Tuesday is Jesse Stuart's 100th Birthday.

To celebrate his centennial year, the Jesse Stuart Foundation is hosting an open house on Tuesday from noon-6:00 p.m., and we invite the public to visit, enjoy refreshments, and see the progress we have made since we purchased Ashland's former postal building six years ago.

Each adult visitor will receive a small gift, and each child under the age of twelve will receive a copy of Stuart's junior book, "Old Ben."

During our open house, while you're visiting our two bookstores, art gallery, and photographic exhibit, you can enjoy live music provided by Jesse Stuart Foundation Board Members Carl & Buzzy Leming.

We're also going to offer special discounts on Jesse Stuart Foundation publications and have a drawing for a signed First Edition of a Stuart Book.

We'll be showing Jesse Stuart films in our conference room that day, too, so come and join us as we celebrate Jesse Stuart's life and literature.

Later this fall, we'll celebrate Jesse's 100th birthday with a Jesse Stuart Weekend at Greenbo State Lake Resort Park and a Special Edition reprint of Stuart's famous and influential book, "The Thread That Runs So True."

Jesse Stuart died in 1984 but, he still lives in the hearts and mind of millions of Americans who have read his world-famous books. Stuart is memorialized in many other ways, too-through the Jesse Stuart Foundation and the Jesse Stuart Nature Preserve; through the Jesse Stuart Lodge at Greenbo State Lake Resort Park; by the Jesse Stuart bridge that links Stuart's Eastern Kentucky homeland with Southern Ohio, and by many more tributes to his great influence as an author, educator, far-sighted conservationist, and spokesman for his home and people.

While you're in the building on Tuesday, I encourage you to visit the offices of Ashland Main Street and pick up information from Morehead State University's Small Business Development Center. Both organizations are vital to economic development in the Ashland area.

I hope to see you on Tuesday. For more information, call 606-326-1667.