Rick Robinson is a local author who is writing a book based on life in Northern Kentucky in 1968 and what we can learn now. LINK will publish excerpts from the book regularly in the LINK Reader, as well as on linknky.com. This is chapter 11. Click here to read chapter 10, Rick Robinson’s 1968: October.
On Election Day 1968, Richard M. Nixon and Spiro T. Agnew were elected to lead the country.
The Republican ticket captured the commonwealth’s nine electoral votes. Of Kentucky’s 120 counties, Hubert Humphrey won 42, and George Wallace captured 5. Nixon won the remainder. Their respective percentages of Kentucky’s vote: Nixon/Agnew, 43.8%; Humphrey/Muskie, 37.7%; and Wallace/LeMay 18.3%.
Election results in Campbell and Kenton counties closely mirrored the state and the nation, while George Wallace outpaced his statewide percentages in Boone County.
Boone County
Nixon 4,081 45.09%
Humphrey 2,725 30.11%
Wallace 2,240 24.75%
Campbell County
Nixon 13,681 48.51%
Humphrey 9,747 34.56%
Wallace 4,750 16.84%
Kenton County
Nixon 17,263 43.64%
Humphrey 14,656 37.05%
Wallace 7,612 19.24%
In the other two federal races, Republicans Gene Snyder and Marlowe Cook won their bids for U.S. House and U.S. Senate, respectively.
Republicans gloated. Democrats licked their wounds and plotted a resurgence. And, of course, The Kentucky Post & Times-Star pontificated about what it all meant.
In a post-election editorial, The Kentucky Post and Times-Star opined: “Kentucky has stoutly reaffirmed its strong preference for a moderate-to-conservative course in national government.” The editorial noted Marlow Cook became the first Roman Catholic senator from the state and labeled Gene Snyder “a stalwart conservative.”
The newspaper also published an open letter to Nixon, Cook and Snyder. Should anyone ever wonder about the editorial position of The Kentucky Post and Times-Star in 1968, this letter made it crystal clear.
Stating that the heartland was becoming weary of the Great Society policies of President Lyndon Johnson, the published letter declared:
We’re sick at the heart of over permissiveness, minority worship, defeatist welfare, toleration of crime, anti-traditionalism, inflation with an anemic currency, paternalism, maternalism, over-taxation, grants-in-aid, waste in general and over government in everything except law and order. … It is our firm belief that over paternalism of the past, particularly in welfare programs, have atrophied the moral sinew of this country and her people.
Following Cook’s election, in a show of bipartisanship unheard of in today’s toxic partisan environment, retiring Democrat Thurston Morton resigned from his seat in the U.S. Senate. This move allowed Republican Gov. Louie Nunn to appoint Cook to take over immediately, thus giving Cook seniority over other newly elected senators to be sworn in come January.
It did not take long for potential candidates for county offices and the state’s General Assembly to put the election behind them and declare their political intentions for 1969. There were not enough column inches in the newspaper to run pictures of every person considering their immediate political future. As opposed to the recent federal election, however, county courthouses were under the control of Democrats. And there were only a handful of Republicans from Northern Kentucky in the General Assembly.
Democrats talked of their local reorganization and the inclusion of younger people into the party. Republicans were hopeful to build upon their victory in the ’68 federal elections.
November was yet another bad month for regional Vietnam casualties.
Marine Pvc. Howard Wilhoit of Ludlow had enlisted with several of his friends from high school. He had been stationed in Vietnam for over a year when he was killed in fighting within the Demilitarized Zone. “He felt he had to go,” said his father. Fleming High School graduate and career officer Lt. Col. Alden O’Brien was killed in the crash of a C-47 cargo plane. The 50-year-old father of two had been a fighter pilot in World War II. And Pfc. Raymond Bruce McKinney was killed by mortar fire while on patrol in the Quang Nam province. From letters, McKinney’s parents thought their son was in Okinawa. “I suppose he didn’t want to worry us about being in Vietnam,” said his sister.
As casualties mounted, The Kentucky Post and Times-Star reached out to several of the draftees it had been following to report on their experiences in Vietnam.
Bill Brewer from Crescent Springs said of the enemy, “You fight ’em, but you don’t see ’em. All you hear are the rounds popping over your head.”
Covington’s Carl Fryman, who went into the military despite his religious concerns about killing, rationalized his actions with his faith. “Well, if a guy walks up to you and is going to kill you, you gotta kill him. It’s survival. You don’t have much choice. You don’t think about it much.”
“You don’t understand how scared a guy can get over there,” said Richard Goetz of Cold Spring, who had a scar from shrapnel from his time in Vietnam. “You get down on your knees and start praying.”
Those believing Northern Kentucky’s illegal gambling days were far behind the region were shocked as November brought several raids against gaming operations. Once again, reporters from The Kentucky Post and Times-Star proved the paper’s investigatory prowess by going into and reporting upon these illegal casinos.
Reporter Alan Markfield described how, at the 514 Club on Madison Avenue in Covington, he sat at the bar watching well-dressed men and women disappear behind a door at the back of the bar. He sat at the bar as people around him bragged of their winnings. He went to the door and was led to another marked as the men’s restroom. Just beyond that door, he found out where everyone was going:
“They were in a bright, smoke-filled room that resembled a miniature Las Vegas casino. The room was about 18×45 feet, and there were no windows.
On a table in front of me, there was a dice game: to the left, a tall man in a blue shirt and dark slacks was dealing black jack. About 40 people were crowded around both tables, trying to get their bets covered. On the wall were race results from major tracks across the country.
This noisy room was packed. The horse players sat at rows of tables, carefully screening Saturday’s picks.”
The next night, Markfield visited two more Covington gambling establishments, the Past Prime Restaurant on Madison and Howard’s Club on Pike Street. Accompanying the reporter to these venues was a local well-known anti-gambling reformer. At the first stop, the reformer was a little too well-known. After they placed a bet on a horse race, a bouncer brandishing either a billy club or a gun ran them out of the building. At their second stop, the pair observed a game of five card stud with a $35 ante and $15 minimum raises.
The stories led to numerous raids of illegal casinos and indictments of their operators in Kenton and Campbell counties.
What many might consider a novelty story, properly sets forth the changing role of women in society, as well as the struggles they faced. In 1968, Penny Ann Early became the first licensed female jockey. She attempted to ride in three races at Churchill Downs in Louisville, but the threat of a boycott by male jockeys caused her to lose her mounts. One male jockey brazenly declared Early would fall off her horse and have to be rescued.
Following the meet in Louisville, Penny Ann Early took her saddle to Latonia Race Track. The night before the Latonia meet started, the Kentucky Colonels of the American Basketball Association put Early into a game for one second as a guard – making her the first woman to play in a men’s professional basketball game. In protest of the mounts she lost at Churchill, she wore No. 3.
When Early came to Latonia Race Track, Life magazine and CBS were there to cover it. Three minutes before the scheduled start of the fifth race, a high wind caused a power outage and cancellation of the rest of the races for the day. Despite Early being the first female licensed jockey, she never got a mount.
Life did write about Early’s attempt to break horse racing’s glass ceiling. But it also allowed jockey Bill Hartack to pen a guest editorial about his outrage. “They’ll find out how tough it is, and they’ll give it up. The tracks won’t have to worry about being flooded with women because a female cannot compete against a male doing anything. … They might weigh the same as male jockeys, but they aren’t as strong. And as a group, I don’t think their brains are as capable of making fast decisions. Women are also more likely to panic. It’s their nature,” Hartack wrote.
In February 1969, Diane Crump rode at Hialeah Park Race Track in Florida and became the first woman to compete in a pari-mutuel race. Two years later, her ride in the Kentucky Derby would set the stage for other women to enter the sport.
In yet another instance where headlines sound vaguely familiar, on Election Day, The Kentucky Post and Times-Star published an article titled “Electors Could Ignore the Will of the Public.” Offering several scenarios of how electors from each ticket could cause the vote to move from the Electoral College to the House of Representatives, the reporter noted, “Considering the presidency is at stake, the electoral system is not a tightly run operation.”
Rick Robinson’s award-winning books can be found at area bookstores and are available on Amazon. In a new book to be released later this year, he will be viewing Northern Kentucky through the lens of 1968. If you wish to contact Robinson with a story or thoughts about 1968, you may do so at neverleavefish@gmail.com. Photo credits compliments of Kenton County Library Faces and Places. Unless otherwise noted, all stories and quotes from 1968 are from articles that appeared in The Kentucky Post and Times-Star.