On “Ted Hayes Remembers” this week, he’ll feature an interview with the late Almo Smith.
In his days in Knox, Almo Smith worked at the Kingsbury Ordinance Plant, sold insurance, served on the Hospital Board, and was the City Court Judge. He was also one of the founding fathers of WKVI radio. Mr. Smith hired both Harold Welter and Ted Hayes to get the station “off the ground.”
But Almo Smith’s formative years were in Kentucky, and he never lost his love for the Bluegrass State. On this, the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War, Almo Smith remembered in an interview with Ted how the War Between the States impacted Kentucky.
“The Civil War was very traumatic to the state of Kentucky,” he said. “Kentucky, officially, was a neutral state. But, that is not true. The history book says that the Union forces drafted 90,000 people from Kentucky to serve in the Union Army. Kentucky supposedly furnished more soldiers to the Union Army than any state, except Ohio. But, 45,000 volunteered for the Confederacy. It left a lot of lingering casualties of wounded passions and jealousies. It really divided up the state because here’s brother against brother and cousin against cousin. This group over in this holler were in the Union Army and the ones over in the Salyersville area were in the Confederate Army and it was really devastating to the state of Kentucky.”
You can hear Ted’s interview with the late Almo Smith, Friday, during the “Ted Hayes Remembers” program at 12:20 p.m. and at 5:30 p.m. CT.
