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The time George W. Bush didn't come to Adair County, KY Some Adair Countians were sure the man they saw or shook hands with was the future President, but the man they remember coming in the back door of Murrell Burton's, leaving by the front, and boarding the bus for London was another of the future president's sons, Kay Burton's photo shows, and that's an historic event. And there's a bit of icing for the cake, she says. Marilyn Quayle was here, to boot. By Ed Waggener The usually infallible George Keltner was only almost right about an important visit to Columbia, KY. And his memory was in good company. Bruce Rogers remembered it the same as Mr. Keltner, and so did Joe Hare, though Joe Hare had later misgivings. "George W. Bush came through Columbia in 1988," Bruce Rogers told us a few months ago. "I drove around the Square and saw him shaking hands with some Adair Countians before he got on a tour bus." But, being from a good Democrat family, Bruce Rogers said he didn't go over to check more closely. "But it was George W. Bush, alright," he said. He said he remembered George Keltner being in the crowd. "He (George Keltner) remembers it, I'm sure," Bruce Rogers said. George Keltner confirmed the occasion and all that Bruce Rogers said. Mr. Keltner said he shook hands with the current president that day. He remembered the man he shook hands with as saying, "You'll vote for my Dad, won't you?" And Mr. Keltner said assured him that he was from a big family of Keltner's and the Bush-Quayle ticket would get all the Keltners' votes. "It was George W. Bush," Keltner remembered. And Joe Hare, these days Columbia Utilities Gas Superintendent, remembered Bush II as the man coming through the back door of Murrell Burton's Real Estate office (we're trying to get the chronology right; maybe Coy Downey was still the owner) came out, shook a lot of hands asking people to support his daddy, Bush I, and got on the bus for a rally in London. But later, Superintendent Hare called and said he knew he had seen a Bush son that day almost 20 years ago, but maybe is was not George W. "It might have been Jeb," he said.Still, story was promising. But further inquiries, made to make the story better, not to debunk it, led in another direction. Others doubted that Adair County had it's first ever visit by a future, sitting, or past President that day. Judge Melton, who was a deputy in Joyce Rogers' Adair County Clerk's office, didn't remember it. "And I would," she maintains. "We heard all the political news in the clerk's office. And neither did Joyce Rogers, who was the Adair County Court Clerk at the time, said she had no recollection of a George W. Bush visit here. Some people who would have known, such as Larry Legg and Steve Coomer, were already over in London for the big Fifth District rally for George Herbert Walker Bush. According to the first report, George W. Bush left the bus tour at another stop along the way, and rejoined in Columbia, KY. John Chowning, who was involved in the campaign said that most likely, the Bush who visited Adair County was Marvin Bush. "He campaigned heavily in Kentucky that year," Chowning said. Kay Burton, recalls, quite well, when the President's son was in Kentucky. "Vaughn drove the campaign bus all over the Fifth District," she said, and announced that she had a picture of her late husband with the president's son. "It wasn't George W., though," she said, "It was Jeb. I've got a picture of them in Columbia together." She got the picture, and sure enough, there was Vaughn standing by a campaign bus with an unmistakenable son of George H.W., and a man nearly identical to George W," and, on the back, there was the the inscription, "Vaughn Burton with Jeb Bush, 1988." But it wasn't. It was Marvin. Marvin looks more like Bush senior and more like George W.; Jeb is more his mother's son. Kay Burton did remember one other celebrity who was through Columbia that day. "Marilyn Quayle was on the tour," she said. Everyone interviewed remembered one thing. There was a huge rally in London that day. The first President Bush flew in by helicopter, and the memory is of about 20,000 happy Republicans in Laurel County to hear Bush that day. As they said in the old Adair County News storys, "A good time was had by all." Now Adair County is left with the distinction of never having had a past, sitting, or, so far as we know, future President visit here. If George W. Bush had come through to be in Hodgenville tomorrow, for the Lincoln Bicentennial kickoff there, maybe he could have seen Columbia's pressing need for a Presidential visit and would have come on down, visited Begley Chapel, ate at the college, and visted Vester for a piece of Kay Burton's famous pie. That not appearing to be a probability, it's up to Lindsey or Sue Stivers to get a past, present or future president here. Adair County is still waiting. This story was posted on 2008-02-11 11:23:22
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