Profile on Longevity - Thomas J. Stith By KAREN KENNEDY Messenger Staff

the Meade County Messenger Community, page B1 December 6, 2006

Thomas J. Stith was born Feb. 5, 1915, in Stith Valley, a small Meade County farm community. Thomas was the fifth of six children born to William Allen Stith and Lena Marion (Drury) Stith. In their youth, William and Lena went to college to become school teachers and taught for a brief time. However, the Stiths purchased a 365-acre farm and raised Hereford cattle and hybrid seed corn. William Stith became a state representative while in his late 20s, serving two terms.

The Stith children attended the one-room, Shumate School. The old school building is still standing and is, today, located on farmland owned by Thomas.

Thomas attended Shumate School up until the 8th-grade. He recalls his older sister Blanche at one point being his teacher. "She gave me a whipping once," laughed Thomas.

Following grade school, Thomas attended and graduated from Meade County High School. "I hadn't been to Brandenburg much and I was scared about stories of the upperclassmen initiating the freshmen," said Thomas.

It was the job of the parents to introduce their children to the faculty and other students on the very first school day of the year. "My father told them, 'I've brought you a diamond in the rough today, and I want you to smooth him up and make something of him,' " said Thomas. He said that after that day, for a long time his nickname at school was "Diamond."

In order to attend high school, Thomas needed to board in town. He lived with his uncle Dr. Sam Stith for awhile, then roomed at Zelda Bennett's with his sister Cornelia, and later he and Cornelia lived in the Harvey Ditto Apartments.

After graduating MCHS in 1934, Thomas wasn't sure what he wanted to do, so he enrolled at Spencerian College. However, after a year, he decided the place he wanted to be was Meade County, and he returned to the farm.

Thomas remained a single man for quite a long time, but his long run as a bachelor ended when he was in his early 40s. Thomas and his sister Blanche were Billy Graham fans, and one day they took a train up to Madison Square Garden in New York to see him. On the "crusade train" was also a woman named Esther Vincent, whom Thomas and his sister knew from Meade County, and a woman named Audrey Fisher and her mother who were from Louisville.

For three years, Thomas courted Audrey, with the two marrying when Thomas was 45 and Audrey was 33. They had five children - all boys. Today, their son Thomas Mitchell resides in Stith Valley, John Whitney lives in Lexington, Stanley Kevin lives in Louisville, Jeffrey Allen resides in Stith Valley, and Kyle Layton makes his home in Lexington. Of these five boys, only one had a child- a granddaughter for Thomas and Audrey.

Audrey kept busy raising those five boys but helped out some with the farm work by taking care of the registration papers for the cattle. Sadly, Audrey passed away in 1997.

Thomas has several interesting stories about various members of his family, such as his grandfather, Thomas Jefferson Stith, who served in the Confederate Army and fought at the Battle of Perryville. At the age of 80, Thomas Jefferson Stith was walking across the railroad tracks to his son's home to fetch a pail of water. Because he was hard of hearing, he didn't hear the train coming, stepped in front of it, and was killed.

William Allen Stith - Thomas' father - was in legislature when then Governor-elect William Goebel was assassinated. Goebel was on his way to be sworn in when he was shot. "My dad saw him lying on the walk and they took him into the old Capital and swore him in. He lived several days before passing away, and Lt. Gov. Beckham became governor. Dad said the Republicans accused the Democrats of stealing the election, and they may have," said Thomas. Goebel's killer was never found.

While all this was going on, a train load of people came from Eastern Kentucky to Frankfort carrying rifles on their shoulders. "Dad said members of legislature were ordered to carry pistols and they met in secret sessions," said Thomas.

Interestingly enough, Thomas's brother Ralph - the fourth child of William and Lena Stith - served two terms in he legislature just like his father.

During his lifetime, Thomas has had the opportunity to see four different U.S. presidents. The first one was Franklin D. Roosevelt. Thomas saw him get off a train in his wheelchair. Roosevelt was in Elizabethtown and on his way to visit the Lincoln Farm in Hodgenville.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower also came to Elizabethtown and rode through town in a convertible en route to the Lincoln Farm. President Harry S. Truman spoke in Irvington off the back of a train. Thomas said that people said it was Truman's trips through the central United States that got him elected. The Meade County Farm Bureau sponsored a trip to Washington, D.C., and so a man named H.J. Rice and Thomas made the trip to D.C. by train. They visited the Senate and asked to see then Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson, who agreed to come out and meet them.

"He made a statement I'll never forget," said Thomas. "He said, 'You would be surprised how many people in the world would like to trade places with us.' "

Thomas has lots of interesting stories, but his own life has been pretty full, too. Thomas is currently serving as a director of Meade County Farm Bureau and is an active member of the Lincoln Trail Antique Powers of the Past. He served as a director of the Producers Livestock Marketing Association and is past-president of Planters' Cooperative Insurance Company of Meade and Breckinridge counties. For years, he was a member of the Kentuckiana Polled Hereford Association.

Since he was 15 years old, Thomas has been a member of Hill Grove Baptist Church. Five years ago, he became a 50-year member of the Bewleyville Masonic Lodge.

Besides the fact that he's worked hard and lived a clean life, Thomas attributes his good health and longevity to the fact that he "has a good appetite, sleeps good, and the good Lord has given me a good life."