Waggener High School - RingBrothersHistory.com

The Voice, July 25, 1974:No, I never worked with them. Where’d you get that idea? I justthought since they were St. Matthews architects, they ought todo the work.” The library committee was badly split onwhether the architecture should be contemporary or whether weshould go to the old Kentucky style used in the nearby Speedmansion.Augustus and. Doumas recommended the contemporary stylebecause it was more practical. We debated the question for daysand finally put it to a vote. Contemporary won.Harriet Cowman was heartbroken. Oddly enough, neither shenor I were permitted to vote despite the fact we were officers.Under the rules, only people on the board officially representinga St. Matthews civic club or municipality could cast a ballot,and though Harriet belonged to the Woman’s Club and I tothe Jaycees, both organizations had designated someone else asofficial representatives.25th Anniversary IssueThe martini lunch: We raised $40,000 for the library building. Part of this came from a one-night, door-to-door drive byseveral hundred women, organized by Bea (Mrs. John) Henderson, who later opened a dress shop in St. Matthews. The restwe got a few hundred dollars at a time from municipalities, civic clubs and individuals.Price and I became best friends during the campaign. We were so exhilarated by the library that right after it was built heand his wife invited me to lunch at their house. We drank so many martinis and ate so much that after lunch we all laydown side by side on his living room floor and slept away the afternoon.I was The Voice’s second editor, Jimmy Van Arsdale had been publishing and editing the paper a little over a year when myuncle, Paul Bolus, who was Jimmy’s barber, talked him into letting me work Saturdays. That was in September, 1950, andJimmy used to say Uncle Paul put over the deal with a razor in his hand and Jimmy trapped in the chair.Jimmy had first published The Voice on July 14, 1949. It was tabloid size, eight pages, and was called “St. Matthews, YourCommunity Newspaper”, and, was circulated free to 6,500 homes. A born promoter, Jimmy staged a contest to name thepaper, with $100 as the prize.Mrs. James W. May, of 3908 Elfin, immediately mailed in four entries, one for each member of her family. The winningentry, “The Voice of St. Matthews,” was in the name of her four-year-old daughter, Cissy, who got the $100.In his first edition, Jimmy promised to take no sides on issues affecting St. Matthews. “No sides at all?” he was asked.What he meant, he said the following week, was that he would be fair.On August 25, 1949, he began taking sides. He expressed happiness over the reduction in fire insurance rates and his thunderingeditorial declared war on: dangerous railroad crossings, slow-moving traffic, unprepared streets, and high waterbills. He left out sin and rheumatism. The alarmed County Police immediately stationed two patrolmen in St. Matthewsduring rush hours.Jimmy had been operating up till then practically out of his automobile, using his printers, Slater and Gilroy, as a mailingaddress. He announced September 9 he was moving into the Ford Building, 100 Chenoweth Lane.It was right after that, in the September 29 issue, that he launched an attack on high rents in St. Matthews in the middle ofthe greatest boom in U.S. history, he warned landlords to look back to 1932, hinting darkly of a looming depression.Republican paper: The first sign that The Voice was to be sucked into the annexation versus incorporation fight came inthe October 13, 1949, issue when Jimmy warned the Louisville newspapers to forget about incorporation and annexation”and to “try cooperation.”The Voice always had Republican leanings. Jimmy first revealed them October 20, 1949, when his editorial noted TheTimes was backing Charles Farnsley for Mayor of Louisville. This convinced Jimmy that Rees Dickson was a “cinch” towin. Dickson was defeated by the largest majority in Louisville history. The following week, Jimmy wrote an editorialwarning against “overanxiety.”He fell off the Republican bandwagon in 1951 to support Lawrence Wetherby for Governor.The local Municipal League began studying incorporation for St. Matthews in January, 1950, when the Court of Appealsblocked Louisville’s attempt to annex St. Matthews. in an editorial on incorporation or annexation, Jimmy wrote, “We havetasted the bitter draught of being an orphan.” When the League balloted 525 families on the question, Jimmy’s editorialurged ‘careful consideration” as to whether the people ‘favor or disfavor” annexation. The Voice was taking ‘no editorialstand.”