Inaugural Edition Winter 2020 Exploring Our Heritage The Great Seal of A publication of the Honorable Order In this issue... From the Commanding General Legacy of Honor Endowments From Humble Beginnings to High Aspirations 3 Because a Colonel Gave From Humble Beginnings The origins — and growth — The Honorable Order of Kentucky We will also unveil new of the HOKC Charitable Fund. Colonels is a special group of opportunities and programs HOKC to High Aspirations people who strive to make a has created to provide members with By Colonel Leslie M. Watkins A Colonel Among difference in the lives of others opportunities to make lasting gifts Colonels 4 through charitable giving. Because to targeted needs that each of us The Kentucky legend, known The Honorable Order of Kentucky Memorial Fund Trust to benefit the Order of Kentucky Colonels made it a Colonel Gave – because you harbors in our hearts. Whether it is the world over as “The Colonels Charitable Fund originated as Good Works Program of the HOKC. possible for the HOKC to establish gave – the HOKC invests over $2 an experience within our family, or Colonel,” was indeed a Colonel. the Colonel Anna Friedman Goldman a Legacy of Honor Endowment. million annually in programs across our own community, state or nation, Memorial Endowment Fund, created At her death, Colonel Gordon was Additionally, Cynthia left money to the Commonwealth which improve something in our lives drives use Because Kids Matter 7 with memorial gifts upon the death of 82. She had once lived in Grant nearly 50 nonprofits, many of which and enrich the lives of her citizens. to do what we can to help others. Child Watch Counseling & Colonel Anna in 1981. The Honorable County, Kentucky, where she had receive grants from the HOKC. HOKC as a voluntary organization We invite you to learn more about Advocacy Center helps battle Order added additional funds and worked as a medical secretary. The crosses all aspects of race, gender, our Legacy of Honor Endowment the lasting effects of childhood formally established the Colonel Anna HOKC had Colonel Gordon’s address The Honorable Order of Kentucky and age in serving peoples’ needs and Golden Legacy Register. With trauma. Fund with $420,000 in October of in North Carolina and contacted Colonels established the Legacy at a very basic level: food, safe an investment through your estate 1981. Through additional contributions some of her neighbors, who told of Honor Society to recognize It’s in Our Blood 9 shelter, proper attention to families plans, you can create a legacy for a and a series of fortuitous investments, us that she had always said her individuals, such as Gordon and Colonel Fenton Cunningham with children, education, and the list cause most dear to you and ensure the endowment grew to $2.7 million money would go to the Kentucky Shaw, who contribute $100,000 or carries his love for the goes on. Because a Colonel Gave it lasting change for our community, by 1988. Colonels because, according to the more to the Kentucky Colonels’ Commonwealth with him. is possible for others to rise above all Because You Gave. neighbors, when Colonel Gordon philanthropic efforts. Through an Winter 2020 Winter 2020 adversity and find hope to carry on. Through this fund and other donations arrived in this country as the sole estate or current gift, a Colonel can 2 3 Isaiah House 12 The promise of tomorrow is never – including annual donations from Holocaust survivor from her family, establish a Legacy of Honor named One of the state’s largest With this inaugural issue of guaranteed. You were commissioned thousands of loyal contributors – she received assistance from the endowment to fund the Good Works holistic treatment centers, HOKC’s new publication, Bugle, as a Kentucky Colonel because you the Honorable Order of Kentucky Kentucky Colonels. Her attorney Program or a grantee category Isaiah House isn’t a typical we offer an in-depth look into are a person not simply capable but Colonels has served 1,953 grantees shared that Mrs. Gordon told her that of the Colonel’s choosing. These recovery center. successful grant recipients and the willing to participate in the heavy and awarded over $16,319,256 in the Honorable Order of Kentucky endowments will be held in trust impact they have in the lives of lifting charitable agencies are doing. grants across the Commonwealth of Colonels provided her with shoes managed by Hilliard Lyons Trust, our fellow Kentuckians Because a Know that this organization strives Kentucky in the last ten years. and warm clothing when she was too and interest generated will fund Colonel Gave. We feature two grant to help each other take the high road poor to buy those items herself, and grants to non-profits in Kentucky or recipients: Isaiah House (Willisburg, and lift up all lives. As the years passed, other estate Colonel Gordon would be grateful operational costs of the Honorable Kentucky) which assists over 1,000 gifts have been received by the until the day she died. She knew Order, if the Colonel so designates. recovering addicts, and Child Thank you for your support. There HOKC. One such gift came from that naming the Colonels as the sole A Colonel can provide for the Watch Advocacy and Counseling is much to celebrate – Because a Hiltrud Dienstbach Gordon, a beneficiary of her $515,000 estate Honorable Order through his or her Center (Paducah, Kentucky), which Colonel Gave. German immigrant. would help many others in the years estate plans in a variety of ways, addresses the critical issue of child to come. including a will or trust, or through a The Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels abuse and neglect. We also spotlight For many years, every year, a $100 retirement account or life insurance of Kentucky Colonels The Honorable Order Colonels, present and past, and our donation from Colonel Hiltrud Another such gift came from Colonel policy. Additionally, if a Colonel ON THE COVER: connection with the history of our Gordon of New Bern, North Cynthia Shaw. Shaw worked as a wishes to create a named endowment The Great Seal 14 Commonwealth. Carolina, arrived at Headquarters for systems consultant and financial during his or her lifetime, in place of When it comes to the history the Good Works Program. In 2005, analyst. Colonel Shaw gave of herself a cash donation, a distribution from of the Great Seal, “it’s a check came, but it was signed by to help others in ways that made a a retirement account is a tax-friendly complicated.” attorney Mary Markovich rather than difference. According to her financial way to make such a gift. Colonel Gordon. advisor, Cynthia was extremely philanthropic and wanted to help Currently, Legacy of Honor Hal N. Sullivan Commanding General, Ms. Markovich explained that Mrs. people less fortunate than herself. Endowments have been documented 943 South First Street Honorable Order of Gordon had passed away. However, by Colonel Fenton Cunningham, Louisville, Kentucky 40203 Kentuckly Colonels Colonel Gordon had established the When Cynthia passed away in 2019, Colonel Spencer Dayton, and Colonel 502-266-6114 www.KyColonels.org James Geno and Hiltrud J. Gordon her estate gift to the Honorable Maitland Young. Colonel Harland David Sanders was a businessman and restaurateur who founded the the Appalachian Mountains, to open a service station. He added a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant chain. After holding numerous jobs in his lifetime – as dining section and first served his a steam engine stoker, insurance salesman, filling station operator, and farmer – Sanders, a fried chicken (along with ham and steaks) to tourists in his adjacent self-styled Southern gentleman with white hair, a white goatee, and white double-breasted living quarters. The Sanders Court suits, became a worldwide trademark for Kentucky Fried Chicken. and Cafe had a homey atmosphere, with no menu, but good food. In Sanders had humble beginnings. young Harland learned early to take Well, I couldn’t conceive any part of 1935, Governor Ruby Laffoon gave The oldest of three children born care of himself and his siblings. By it. The only thing I got out of it was Sanders his first Kentucky Colonel to Wilbur David and Margaret age seven he had taught himself to that x equaled the unknown quantity. commission for his part in getting Ann Sanders, Harland was born on cook so he could feed the younger And I thought, ‘Oh, Lord, if we got a local man paroled and for his September 9, 1890, in a four-room children. to wrestle with this, I’ll just leave contribution to “state cuisine.” shack on a country road three miles – I don’t care about the unknown east of Henryville, Indiana. After his mother remarried in 1902 to quantity.’ So my school days ended In 1939, food critic Duncan an abusive man with whom Harland right there near Greenwood, Indiana, Hines (who would later become After Wilbur broke his back and a didn’t get along, the twelve-year-old, and algebra’s what drove me off.” a Kentucky Colonel for his own leg on the farm, he worked for two with his mother’s approval, dropped accomplishments) visited Sanders’ years as a butcher in Henryville. In out of school and left home. In a He took a job painting horse carriages restaurant incognito. Hines was the summer of 1895, he came home 1970 interview with The New Yorker, and then moved at age 14 to work as so impressed, he listed the place with a fever and died later Harland gave another reason for a farmhand in southern Indiana.