Our Town: Burkesville | Kentucky Life | KET

at the Gateway to Dale Hollow Lake people heading to the State Park resort might do well to take some time to visit the town of Burkesville it's a community whose history is written across the breathtaking landscape that surrounds it a history full of surprises well we claimed the first American all well but we don't get credit for it that goes to Pennsylvania I believe but they were drilling for salt and hid all and their stories about the river catching on fire as well as tragedy high up above town near the historic Alpine motel sits the lonely grave of Civil War officer Captain Jack McLain who tragically took his own life after accidentally killing his best friend his last request was to be buried on top of the highest hill overlooking Burkesville as that is as near to heaven as I will ever get but the story of Burkesville is very much of work-in-progress with chapters constantly being added by the most delightful cast of characters it's a place where you can bend the mayor's ear while he gives you a trim or catch up with a dentist JM Stevenson he's 94 years young and his living proof that laughter is the secret to longevity the reception room down there was standing room only no partners back then that didn't make appointments here they didn't know what pointment was I was new and that I didn't know exactly how to take out tooth he thought of did as his old Steve is gonna have to learn take out teeth and take them out fast World War two veteran Kenneth Baloo's chapter reaches far beyond the banks of the Cumberland River that runs along this community during the War I was on the front line when they called for a ceasefire and this board drove up one day and he said Baloo's said let's go to birches garden I said where's Berkshires garden he said Hitler's mountain retreat and it was open and we go through it and I went into this bedroom they said that's Hitler's bed some of it was a big nice bed IRA Steffen got a whole lung them knobs on his bed and jerked it and broke the knob bolts and I kept it if anybody asks you where heavens bed head we tell part of it Sandburg Kentucky there's also the story of people who have come and gone from the historic community but made the decision to return like Buford Willis who ran moonshine is a youth 4950 i guess 50 the Cumberland River froze over I know I come to town me and some of my cousins and we brought some moonshine with us and it was so cold that when we poured moonshine out of the fruit jar that it wrote like syrup he left for years but was drawn back to his old Kentucky home as old people used to say when you ride up on your horse they say light and look at your saddle Wow that's what I decided I do I come back light look at my saddle or Heather Hannon who runs Annie Ruby's cafe on the town square that specializes in tomato pie the tomato pie man it's good who ever thought to put that over cornbread is not kidding around yeah my mom I can credit her with the cornbread recipe it was my mother-in-law who tried it first we made it in a regular crust and my mother-in-law said that's soggy we need to work on that so we decided to work on a corn bread crust and that's how it happened she was born in Burkesville and moved all over including the cayman islands she found her calling when she came back home we always talked about having a rest and how fun that would be so and then here it just happened we fell into it I guess there are also non Kentucky natives who are writing a new chapter of their story in Burkesville like Elyse Kieffer she moved with her family from New Jersey to Cumberland County we were working in New York City and living in New Jersey and we wanted to find a quiet place to raise a family and this is what we found Elisa's passion is the arts and she's sharing that with area kids through the Burkesville Academy of Fine Arts Burkesville Academy of Fine Arts was born out of that passion that I found by working with these young people and we started out as a summer program we had 50 children our first summer which really was pretty amazing in a small town to have 50 kids and then the next year we had 100 in one year we had 100 students I started working with some young people who were just phenomenally talented and didn't even know it I talked to a lot of adults that they'd never in their memory there had never been a production in Brooksville a full-length production in Brooksville and here we were doing it with children you know our youngest cast members were five our oldest were high schoolers but it was amazing it was amazing to be able to accomplish that while their stories differ it's clear minion Burkesville chose the same path of the simplicity of small-town life so you know everyone right yeah and there's something nice about that it's comforting to know you know your neighbors and you really know them for me I left and came back and sometimes you don't appreciate that until you come back home everybody cares for you you know everybody everybody knows you if we have a problem or anything like that people are right there for us to help us in any way they can I mean this this is home to me in fact if you said baloo why don't you move to Bowling Green I don't want to go to Bowling Green I'll post it I'll live here in Burke Phil spent most of my life here and they can rest easy knowing a new generation is also coming to add their own chapter to the Burkesville story you like living here yeah because this best home best OS or sing stop right here

Channel: KET - Kentucky Educational Television

Views: 20,736

Rating: 4.9509201 out of 5

Keywords: KET, Kentucky Educational Television, PBS, public television, public tv, Kentucky (state), Kentucky (US State), Burkesville (City/Town/Village), Town (Location)

Id: wnCCCkFIVuc

Length: 6min 47sec (407 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 15 2014