A bronze statue seated near the old courthouse and the Alhambra Theater of one Edward “Ned” Breathitt — the 51st Governor of Kentucky and revered Hopkinsville native — is well on its way to becoming reality.
During a Tuesday afternoon visit with the Hopkinsville Rotary Club, Ned’s second eldest child, Linda, shared intimate photographs of her father’s life — from his early days training as a bombardier at Maxwell Air Force Base, to his later days eating a bite of cake with Lyndon B. and Lady Bird Johnson.
Just 37 years old at his 1962 election, and 38 years old at his 1963 inauguration, Breathitt is still Kentucky’s youngest-ever governor to serve the office. Among his top efforts while serving include his passage of the Kentucky Civil Rights Act, his continued efforts improving state highways and parks, his improved education funding, and his tighter regulations on strip mining.
It is for these efforts, and so many more, that the Breathitt family would like to see his memory preserved in perpetuity — and particularly in Hopkinsville, where he and the family returned to after his single term as governor.
Linda noted that her well-accomplished younger brother, Edward T. III, would be crafting the work — following such projects as his Old Joe Clark statue in Renfro Valley, his Rainey T. Wells statue at Murray State University, his 50-foot statue of Lord Krishna in Saifai, Uttar Pradesh, India, to a proportional bronze bust of KET founder Len Press in Lexington.
Linda added that the family started working on this concept around around 2017 and decided to go forward with it. A fundraising event in Frankfort, targeting Central Kentucky friends and family, has already raised $90,000 of the project’s $160,000 goal.
Now, Linda and the Breathitt family are turning their fundraising efforts to west Kentucky — and specifically Christian County — in hopes of completing the project and bringing it to life.
Along with the statue, Linda said an interpretive plaque will be in full detail and relief, in what will be a re-creation of a photograph of Breathitt shaking hands with Martin Luther King, Jr. and Hall of Fame baseball player Jackie Robinson, as the three of them stood in the governor’s office following the 1966 Civil Rights March in Frankfort.
The family hopes to have the project finished in late May or early June, which means a quick turnaround. But whatever the timeframe, Linda stressed that Hopkinsville was home.
In a partnership with the Pennyroyal Arts Council, all tax-deductible donations are going through the “Edward T. Breathitt Sculpture Project” and a fundraiser at the Alhambra Theater will happen with a date yet to be determined.
Through the project’s steering committee, Linda said it’s Hal McCoy’s belief that a fixture like this in downtown Hopkinsville can not only instill hope and inspiration, but also bring about the awareness of other noted individuals of Christian County’s history.
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