43. Gene Snyder and Tommie Hockensmith

A few days ago, Tuesday the 13th, among the items I wrote about was the naming of the United States Federal Court House and the former Jefferson Freeway (KY 841) for former Congressman Gene Snyder. My feelings are Snyder deserved the latter but not the former. Without question, because of his political abilities and connections, he secured the funds to finish the circle around Jefferson County which now bears his name.

Congressman Snyder died very late Friday night at his home in Naples, Florida. He was 79 and had suffered pains associated with recent back and heart surgeries.

One of the hallmarks of Congressman Snyder's service to his constituents was just that - service. He was always conbative and controversial and was no doubt somewhat more conservative than most of the voters in his district. But, he had going for him a reputation of constituent services next to none. In my end of the county, which was close to the western terminus of his district, which for 10 of the twelve years he served, stretched from the urban and rural counties around Covington and Newport, southwest along to the Ohio River to Oldham County, then a string along the perimeter of Jefferson County, from Prospect in the northeast to Valley Station and Kosmosdale in the southwest. From time to time, a sign would be placed along W. Manslick Road in downtown Fairdale, in front of Gene Younger's Barber Shop, announcing that the Congressman would be holding a session of talks with the locals, usually at 10am on a Saturday morning. Lots of federal problems were solved in these small meetings at barber shops, service stations, and other interesting locations throughout the Fourth Congressional District. And, despite someone politics, Snyder's office provided quick and effecient responses for those who sought his help.

I was among those seeking the congressman's help as a young voter; in fact, it was in the first year I could cast a ballot in a November election. I was a freshman at the University of Kentucky in the fall of 1978, turning 18 on the first day of fall of that year. I had been a member of my maternal grandfather's household since my parents' divorce in the early 1960s. All of my financial information in applying for loans and grants for college was based on that fact, and that fact became a problem for the university's bursar's office when it came time to release my grant money. The fall term started August 28 that year, and I was assigned housing in Kirwan II, then a freshman boys dorm in South Campus, a part of the Blanding-Kirwan complex. Kirwan II is now the dorm assigned for "health conscious" students, whatever that means. The Blanding part of that complex was named for Sarah Blanding, a Dean of Women at UK in the 1920s. Albert Kirwan had been UK's head football coach, Dean of Men, and, briefly, at the time the complex was being built (and named) Interim President. But, I digress.

As stated, my financial information was based on the being in the household of Daniel T. Hockensmith, and for whatever reason, my grant money was assigned to Jeff Hockensmith, and not Jeff Noble, which was my name, although a tale about name changes hangs thereby, but it will have to wait for another day. For several weeks, I was either in the office or on the phone with the bursar's office about my grant, and my need of it, but to no avail. They were awaiting instruction from the Federal Grant Program folks in Washington, DC and until and unless the Grant program folks made a change, the money assigned to Jeff Hockensmith was not going to be distributed to Jeff Noble.

The weekend of my 18th birthday, about four weeks into the school year, was an eventful one. Three things happened. First, I had gone home on Friday night for a high school football game, knowing I would have to return to Lexington on Saturday, which was in fact my 18th birthday, as well as the UK football team's homecoming game. The Homecoming Queen was sponsored by my dorm, the aformentioned Kirwan II, of which I had been elected Dorm President, having defeated Owensboro Catholic grad Jim Orton by two votes a few weeks earlier. As the president of the dorm sponsoring the Homecoming Queen, I had certain duties during the game, one of which was presenting the Queen to the President of the University, at the time Dr. Otis A. Singletary. On the return trip to Lexington, I was involved in my first real automobile accident. A long line of cars, of which I was 12th and last, were travelling along the Versailles Road a few hundred feet before the then-turnoff to Bluegrass Field when the lead car decided they were going to turn into the farm located at that point, and with no notice, did in fact, turn in, leaving twelve cars to sort of pile up, one against the next, back to car number twelve, me, driving my 1967 Nova Chevy II. The first few cars in the front were damaged heavily. Neither my car, nor the car I hit were damaged, and the two of us were dismissed after an agreement between the third car-up and the guy I hit, all overseen by a Lexington Metro cop who was doing his best to minimize whatever paperwork he might have to complete in making the report of a twelve car accident. He condensed those involved to ten, and I made my way on into Lexington and Commonwealth Stadium. So the accident was event number one.

Event number two was, of course, my coming of age on Saturday evening. After the football game I returned home to participate in the Fairdale Fair, an annual event held on the grounds of the Fairdale Playtorium, a local government owned building which serves as a community center of sorts, located in front of the new Fairdale Elementary School, although it was originally behind the old Fairdale Elementary, which had been torn down in the 1970s. I had complained to my local state representative Dottie Priddy, a friend who was one of those who first interested me in politics, about my money situation at UK. She suggested that I corner Congressman Snyder, who always attended the Fair both nights and usually had a booth, and see if he could be of help. She said he would have known my grandmother, who had died a couple of years earlier, as the Democratic precinct captain, one of his detractors, but also someone he liked.

At the Fair, I did as directed, which leads me to event number three. I introduced myself to my congressman and used my grandmother's name, Tommie Hockensmith, as an entree to the conversation. Snyder said he had indeed known my grandmother and lamented her passing, despite the fact that she had work assidulously for his defeat in several election cycles. He directed an aide to take all my information and assured me his office would work to correct the problem. He also said they would be in touch with the university about the matter. That was Saturday night.

Late the following Tuesday afternoon, I returned to my dorm room, Number 222, which had also been the dorm room of my fraternity big-brother Mark Metcalf, a Republican who later served as UK Student Government president, Garrard County Attorney, and is now a federal judge in Florida. My roommate that freshman semester was a guy named Peter Matthews Wright, also a Republican, although like Mark, Peter was a Rockefeller Republican, not a Goldwater one. Peter was a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and a wealthy scion somehow related to the Westinghouse fortune, although I never quite understood how. Peter informed me that the bursar's office was trying to reach me and in fact, as far they knew had reached me. That they were trying to reach me wasn't news as they had been calling me regularly since my tuition had not been paid in full due to my grant money had not been released. Peter informed me that the lady in the bursar's office had informed him (thinking he was I) that my money had in fact been released and that my signature was necessary to effect such a release. I gladly ran across campus to apply my signature to whatever form required it. I will add that I called the congressman's office to thank him, and thanked him in another way as well a few weeks later.

Upon the election of my friend John Yarmuth to the office of Congressman from Kentucky's Third District, a seat held for two years by Snyder, I mentioned to him the reputation for service Snyder possessed. Yarmuth knew that as he had been a Republican when younger and was familiar with Snyder. I allowed that one of the ways to hold onto the office is also one of the simplest to do: have an excellent constituent services operation. As Congressman Yarmuth has hired in his Louisville office, among others, a Mr. Ben Basil, to whom I give a great deal of credit for Yarmuth's win due to his handling - some may say absolute control - of the volunteers in the campaign, I am confident of the constituent services operation now in place and hope that it can be as effective as I know personally Congressman Snyder's was in his day.

I mentioned earlier in this piece that my grandmother has passed away a couple of years prior to the events of the weekend of September 23, 1978. She, in fact, passed away 31 years ago today at the age of 59, on February 18, 1976, due to complications of heart failure and atheriosclerosis. Of the eleven Lewis children who survived infancy (as several didn't including one named Harry Scott), only the two oldest are deceased, my grandmother Tommie, in 1976, and her older brother Henry, I think in 1995. Remaining are Aunt Frances Catherine Moore, Aunt Lura Edith Brown, Aunt Dorothy Ann Henry (although not the Aunt Dorothy previously mention in other posts), Aunt Virginia "Jinny" Lee Sharp (previously mentioned in a post on Florida), Uncle Charlie Lewis, Uncle Billy Lewis, Uncle Bob Lewis (the former Sheriff of Franklin County), Uncle Elbert "Egg" Lewis, and the Uncle Jimmy Carroll Lewis. Lura Brown lives in Graefenburg in Shelby County; Virginia Lee Sharp in Lee County, Florida, and Jimmy Carroll Lewis in Laurel County, in southeastern Kentucky. All the rest live in and around Frankfort, where they were raised, in different locations along the Pea Ridge, Bridgeport-Benson, and/or Louisville roads. My grandmother and grandfather, Uncle Henry and his wife Aunt Virginia, who passed away late last last year, their Aunt Dorothy Collins Austin Hedger, their Uncle Earl Louis Collins and his wife Aunt Margaret Baker Collins, who also passed away last year at the age of 94, their parents Robert and Rachel Lewis, along with some assorted cousins and in-laws are all buried in the Sunset Memorial Gardens cemetery, located just inside Woodford County at the Franklin County border, on US 60, not far from the Kentucky Democratic Party' state headquarters at I-64.