The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 3

THE COURIER-JOURNAL SUNDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1995 EDITOR: MARK PROVANO PHONE: 582-4657 FAX: 582-4200 IT fi fi PA. tt jr-Vi Tmir BRIEFLY ringing cue gree Big jackpots have many dreaming of a lotto holiday cheer Miller filled out no card, 'cause he had a trick. He plunked down his cash, got his numbers quick. Said he had a method, a method quite slick: "Everyone who's won a big one has had a Quick-Pick." He walked to his car and was leaving the store When he turned and got back into line for some more. And I heard him explain as the line made its crawl, "I forgot I wanted to play Powerball." (The jackpot for Powerball, the multistate lottery that has longer odds than either Hoosier Lotto or Lotto Kentucky, was $34 million fersonville.

With the lottery jackpot at $28 million, Cotton was busy. On Lotto Kentucky they also were betting, For $15 million they hoped they'd be getting. And what would they do with their newfound millions? Quit work or party or change to civilians. Sgt. Danny Walker, an Army recruiter stationed in Louisville, offered his'personal guarantee.

"I can guarantee you if I hit it, I'll be out of this uniform," he said. Their change, how it tinkled, their greenbacks how quickly They made the cash register bulge oh so thickly. they'd gone into debt. On birthdays, on wedding days, on holidays they wagered. (It wasn't statistics in which they had majored.) See, the odds are so long, this may be a jolt But it's easier to catch a stray lightning bolt.

Of course, that won't faze any true believer Who's caught in the grip of that Lotto Fever. "1 got it bad," said Forrest Miller of Louisville, who had crossed the river to play in Indiana. For Miller, winning would be a kind of revenge. "I'd just be breaking even," he said with a smile. 'I've spent so much money on these tickets." entuckians believe Holidays are for hugs state schools more public funds By JOHN VOSKUHL Staff Writer Twos nine days before Christmas and many an auto Was crossing the bridge to play Hoosier Lotto.

The players were nettled by somewhat long lines, While visions of sugar plu make that dollar signs Danced in those places where every dream dances. They paid their money. They took their chances. "I'm gonna be dreaming lottery tonight," said clerk Missy Cotton, even as her fingers tapped the keyboard of the Hoosier Lottery computer terminal at Thornton's Gas and Food Mart just off Exit 0 in Jef- i "strongly agreed" or "somewhat agreed" that colleges and universities deserve more state funding; about 18 percent disagreed. When asked which of several areas should receive the bulk of any new state money, 46 percent listed elementary and secondary education as the top priority.

After that came higher education (13 percent); health and human services (12 percent); vocational educational (9 percent); roads and bridges (7 percent); public safety (3 percent); and state parks and recreation programs (2 percent). More than two-thirds said they would be willing to pay an additional penny in sales tax if assured the money would go to higher education. About 35 percent said all work-force-type education should be offered by the community col- Community colleges rate well in survey By RICHARD WILSON Staff Writer LEXINGTON, Ky. Many Ken-tuckians believe the state's universities need more public funding, but they also think elementary and secondary education should be the top priority for any new state spending. Those are among the findings of a statewide poll conducted for the University of Kentucky community college system by The Preston Group, a Lexington public-relations and research firm.

Slightly more More than said they more sales money higher y' 4 I i two-thirds would pay tax if the would go to education. Prayer prohibited; teacher quits HOPKINSVILLE A teacher gave up her job as a substitute in public schools after being told to stop saying a one-sentence blessing in the classroom at lunch. Pat Capps' daily ritual became an issue last month at Crofton Elementary School, where she frequently worked as a substitute. School officials told Capps she would have to stop praying after two students in a fifth-grade class questioned whether it was legal. It had been her practice to offer the short blessing in the classroom each day before the students walked to the cafeteria for lunch.

"God, our Father, once again we bow our heads to thank you. Amen," was Capps' blessing. "I felt I was obligated to my Lord to pray," Capps said. "An employee-led prayer is not permissible," said Kirby Hall, school superintendent. "What we did point out is that any student may pray, or any person may pray at any time.

But it cannot be led by an adult or a person in authority. Capps is now a substitute at Heritage Christian Academy. In addition to the lunch blessing, students have devotion at the beginning and end of each school day and a 45-minute Bible study class. Morehead honors winter graduates MOREHEAD Some 550 degree candidates were honored during Morehead State University's winter commencement yesterday. "It is only through hard work that we today celebrate a great victory in our lives," said student speaker Aaron Boyd Wagner, of Wheelersburg, Ohio.

He received a bachelor of science degree with honors. Elijah M. Hogge, a former judge of the Kentucky Court of Appeals, received an honorary doctor of public service degree. Hogge, a former county attorney in Rowan County, is treasurer and board member of the Northeast Kentucky Hospital Foundation. The foundation established St.

Claire Medical Center in Morehead. Cincinnati airport tower a busy one HEBRON The control tower at the CincinnatiNorthern Kentucky International Airport could be upgraded soon to rank with its counterparts at the nation's busiest airports. The control tower is expected to be reclassified as a Level 5 facility, like those at Chicago O'Hare, Los Angeles and Atlanta, perhaps by February. To be classified as a Level 5 control tower, controllers must work an average of 100 flights an hour, 16 hours a day, for 183 days. Controllers at CincinnatiNorthern Kentucky International are averaging a little more than 98 flights an hour, said Sherry Jensen, assistant air traffic manager.

The controllers also handle flights for nine small airports in the area. In 1994, they handled more than 472,000 flights. Almost 340,000 of those flights were at CincinnatiNorthern Kentucky International. Controllers at O'Hare handled 882,000 landings and takeoffs at the nation's busiest airport in 1994. Mammoth Cave is closed again With the partial shutdown of the federal government, the National Park Service has suspended cave tours and closed the visitor center, administrative offices and ferries at Mammoth Cave National Park.

The Mammoth Cave Hotel and primary park roads remain open. Actually, it needs no explanation Florida State University history professor Don Barry will lecture on the reasons for the love affair for basketball in Kentucky and Indiana at noon Tuesday at The Filson Club Historical Society, 1310 S. Third St. in Louisville. Barry's lecture, "Hoops Hysteria, is free and open to the public.

For reservations, call 635-5083. INSIDE Health-care costs offset wage hikes Kentucky employers are shifting health-care costs to their employees and for many them, that means a cut in pay, a survey has found. B7 BEG YOUR PARDON Because of a production error, a map was put in place of a picture that was to have run with a story yesterday about a female welder. INDEX Deaths B4 Weather B2 In this season of sharing, some folks were no rookies. They were doing for others by acting as bookies.

Tony Sumpter of Louisville placed 25 bets on the Hoosier Lotto bets made by Sumpter and four of his coworkers at Rohm Haas Kentucky Inc. The five have been betting together for some time, Sumpter said. In the last three weeks, they've won $50 twice. Should they win it all, the jackpot will be split in five equal portions, Sumpter said. He gets no extra share for placing the bets.

"They take care of me at work," he said. "They feed me." More money than sense went into each bet As some folks acknowledged STAFF PHOTO BY JAMES H. WALLACE steep that, at some places, she got off and led him rather than risk a fall. And one of her patrons remembered her once riding the horse through water so deep that it reached the bottom of the saddlebags. Sometimes her feet froze to the stirrups.

"I never did measure the territory, but it seemed like a whole lot of miles," Lucas said. "I covered Bear Creek, and either Brush Creek or Wide Creek, Burton Bend, Tallega, and the schools at Primrose, Monica and Oliver." leges; 18 percent said it should be offered by the state's postsecondary vocational schools. The rest suggested no change or had no opinion. Thirty percent believed the quality of programs is better in the community colleges than in the vocational schools; 14 percent believed it was1 better in the vocational schools. About 70 percent said higher education is accessible to most Ken-tuckians; 27 percent said people in their area did not have easy access to a campus.

More than half said they believed the cost of college kept people in their areas from attending. The community college survey part of a larger poll done by The Preston Group was conducted by telephone between Oct. 25 and Nov. 4. Its margin of error was plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.

than half of those surveyed also said the quality of education offered by the community colleges is excellent or good. "Obviously, we are extremely pleased with the results of this survey," said Ben W. Carr chancellor of the two-year community college system. He said it showed that "not only are the people of Kentucky pleased with the work of the community colleges, but the majority also approve more funding" for higher education. The poll surveyed adults in 690 households in which someone had voted in at least three of the last five general elections.

Preston Group President Tom Preston said the survey targeted voting households to get "individuals who normally demonstrate interest in public issues." Among the findings: Two-thirds of the respondents Jarhara Christie, 3, gave Santa Claus a big hug after relaying his list of Christmas wishes yesterday at the Marchman Learning Centre in western Louisville. Sixty-nine children at the center were invited to a pancake breakfast and photo sessions with Santa. Proceeds from the event will go toward purchasing a CD-ROM system for the learning center's computer. were tough, but book woman was tougher The times CANYON FALLS, Ky. Grace Caudill Lucas was one of Kentucky's "book women," a pack-horse librarian during the Great Depression.

Finding her was not easy. But my recent story about the Pack Horse Library caught the attention of Karen Hubbs of Morning View, who called to say that at least one of the book women was alive and reasonably well. She is 83 and still living in Lucas Hollow in eastern Lee County, where she once rode a horse through the hills to deliver books to schools and homes. She met me at her cozy white frame house and showed me to a BYRON CRAWFORD COLUMNIST seat in front of a stove. A well-worn Bible lay on the arm of her chair.

It was her favorite book, the book woman said, the best book she'd ever read. What did she remember about being a pack-horse librarian? "You mean besides riding a horse?" she asked. "Well, when I first started, you know, that WPA was a big thing for us paupers. That's what they think of all of us hillbillies, that we're just poor, poor, poor. But I worked at sewing before I started on that, because I had two 4 A 1 in Yiii-in- Louisville MINI UN FALLS children from a previous marriage, and for years I was with my children on my own.

I had to make a living for them." Times were hard. "Son, they was so hard you couldn't hardly crack 'em," she said. "It wasn't only one; it was about everybody. About the only work there was around here, besides grubbing and making moonshine, was railroading, and there was a few pensioners. They was the only ones that had a dollar.

"We had enough to eat. We had our own hogs and our own cow. But many of a night my children and me went to bed with just milk and bread (for supper), and it's still good enough for me." She doesn't remember exactly when she switched from a Works Progress Administration sewing project to the pack-horse librarian's job; her best guess is that it was about 1934, when she would have been 22. "I got paid $28 a month and worked about three days a week. I had to hire my horse.

I paid 50 cents a day for the horse, and fed it. It was just a big black horse. Bill, I think, was his name." Lucas doesn't recall ever having any trouble with the horse, but she rode him around some cliffs so i i 4irfWiffritV at Grace Caudill Lucas, 83, still lives in eastern Lee County, where she was a pack-horse librarian during the Great Depression. In a 1935 photo at left, she led her horse, Bill. and they loved poetry." Lucas has fond and misty memories of one humble mountain home where a good woman with a big family and scarcely enough food to go around always insisted that she stay for a meal when she brought books.

"I didn't want to eat, because I thought I'd be taking something away from the children, but she would make me eat," Lucas said. "I've thought about that so many times." One of Lucas' best friends, Carlie Lynch, 86, was a teacher at the Monica School when Lucas was a book woman. "She's one of the finest women who ever grew up in this area," Lynch said. "She would come every two weeks. I must have had 45 children in the one-room school, and when she would come they'd be so tickled.

There weren't many books, but we would pass them around and try to let as many children read them as possible. They loved books like 'Robinson.