This month we celebrate two Oldham County's Celebrities with our Dairy Queen's Famous People's Birthday Party Day-Abolitionist Henry Bibb and children's author Annie Fellows Johnston.

Henry Bibb, born May 10, 1815, was perhaps one of the most famous slaves in the 19 th Century. His 106 page narrative of his years as a slave in Oldham, Trimble and Henry County is one of the best documented narratives that can be found. Henry fell in love with a mulatto slave named Malinda, from Oldham County, with whom he had one daughter, Mary Frances. After many unsuccessful escape attempts with his wife and daughter he finally had to leave them. He joined with Josiah Henson to form the Refugees' Home Colony in Canada where he became the first black editor of a Canadian newspaper called The Fugitive . Mr. Bibb's narratives can be read on the internet and are also available in published books.

Annie Fellows Johnston was born on May 15, 1863. Although not a native of Oldham County, Mrs. Johnston penned the famous children's series of books, The Little Colonel series, based upon characters she developed from her experiences living in Pewee Valley. Her books were immensely popular and there were Little Colonel Clubs and Little Colonel memorabilia that could be found all over the United States. The Little Colonel craze was epitomized with the Shirley Temple movie made in 1935. A critic has said of her work that it is "not just of local or sentimental interest, for she created a group, a way of living-that seems to go on rather like the ever-widening waves from a pebble thrown into a pool. .."

During the month of May the History Center will be showing Shirley Temple's "The Little Colonel" to honor Annie Fellows Johnston and the "History of the Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky" to honor Henry Bibb. Stop by the history center on the birthdays of Bibb and Johnston and you will receive a free ice cream cone certificate from Dairy Queen.

For more information contact: Oldham County History Center , Nancy Theiss or Ann Zimlich
502-222-0826, 502-222-7115 (fax); 106 Second Ave.LaGrange, KY 40031
ochstryctr@aol.com, website: oldhamcountyhistoricalsociety.org
Free admission to the history center museum and archives
Open: Tuesday-Saturday 10 a.m. -4 p.m.