HEHL, LAMBERT, SR.
Boone Co. church named after the Hebron Lutheran Church in Virginia. Hopeful Lutheran and Hebron Lutheran started a joint parish, with one pastor, Rev. David Harbaugh, serving both congregations. He lived in a parsonage midway between the two churches. On July 15, 1854, the cornerstone was laid for the newly christened Hebron Lutheran Church. Its modern address is 3140 Limaburg Rd., just east of today’s Connor High School in Boone Co. Trees on the church property were felled for use in construction of the new building, and the bricks were handmade on-site. The building was completed and dedicated on December 3, 1854. The Hebron Lutheran Church of Virginia sent $500 to help pay for construction of its Boone Co. namesake. In 1856 the Ebenezer Lutheran Church was founded in Boone Co. and accepted as a member of the parish. That church continued holding ser vices until 1892, when it merged with the Hopeful Lutheran Church. The Hebron Lutheran Church celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1954. The City of Hebron took its name from the Hebron Lutheran Church. Several additional acres of land adjoining the Hebron Lutheran Church property were purchased in 1968, and a new, modern edifice was built. A $1 million wing was added in 1991, which contains a social hall seating 450 and educational space. Hebron Lutheran Church, with about 350 active members, continues to be a vibrant, growing church, with a wide range of programs. It is currently a member of the Indiana-Kentucky Synod. “Celebration Is Set for Boone Church, Founded in 1806,” KE, June 6, 1956, 1. “Church Chat,” KP, March 11, 1967, 1. Lentz, H. Max. A History of Lutheran Churches in Boone County, Ky. York, Pa.: P. Anstadt, 1902. Waltmann, Henry G. History of the IndianaKentucky Synod of the Lutheran Church in America. Indianapolis: Central, 1971.
HEEKIN. Heekin is in Grant Co., south of Williamstown on U.S. 25 and west on Ky. Rt. 2937. Named for the Heekin Spice Company of Cincinnati, the neighborhood now consists of a smattering of houses and two churches. The thriving Mount Olivet Church of Christ is engaged in a building program. Nearby is the Grassy Run Baptist Church and its adjacent cemetery. Eagle Creek, Rattlesnake Creek, Clark’s Creek, and Grassy Run furnished water needed by the early settlers. The creek beds sometimes served as roads in those days, but landowners were soon made responsible for surveying and maintaining roads in their neighborhoods. The grade schools, which were established about three miles apart, within walking distance for students, included the Independence School, on nearby Chipman Ridge Rd., and the Heekin School. The Heekin School was later consolidated with the Mason School. The Mason School closed its high school in 1953 so its students could enter Grant Co. High School. The present MasonCorinth Elementary School opened in 1991. Conrad, John B., ed. History of Grant County, Kentucky. Williamstown, Ky.: Grant Co. Historical Society, 1992.
Pease, Janet, comp. Abstracted County Court Records. Vols. 1 and 2. Williamstown, Ky.: Grant Co. Historical Society, 1985.
Mary Louis Evans
HEHL, LAMBERT, JR. (b. July 22, 1924, Newport, Ky.). Lambert Lawrence Hehl, a judge and a legislator, is the son of Lambert Lawrence Hehl Sr. and Martha Daly Hehl. He received his early education at St. Vincent de Paul Elementary School in South Newport and went on to graduate from Newport High School. In 1943 Lambert Hehl Jr. volunteered for the U.S. Marines; he served as a legal clerk in the Pacific Theater and had achieved the rank of sergeant by the time he left military ser vice in 1946. On May 25 of that same year, he married Helyn Mae Bathiany, and the couple had two daughters. During the early years of his marriage, Hehl worked by day to support his family and attended evening classes at Chase College of Law. After receiving his law degree in 1952, he maintained a solo law practice until 1956, when he became an associate, and later a partner, in the Newport firm of Benton, Benton, Luedeke, Rhoads, and Hehl. In 1962 Hehl began a successful law partnership with Norbert Bischoff, which lasted until 1982. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, in addition to his burgeoning law practice, Hehl served as president of the Campbell Co. Junior Chamber of Commerce (see Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce) and as state vice president of the Kentucky Jaycees, and he maintained memberships in the James Wallace Costigan Post No. 11, the American Legion Lawler-Hanlon Post No. 5822, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and many other civic organizations. From 1953 to 1956, he served as deputy Campbell Co. tax commissioner under his father, who was serving his fourth term as county tax commissioner. On December 2, 1957, Judge Fred Warren named Hehl Jr. county judge pro tem so that he could swear his father into office for a fift h term as county tax commissioner. Lambert Hehl Jr.’s election in 1959 as a Kentucky state senator marked the beginning of his wide-ranging career as an elected official. From 1960 until the end of his term in 1963, he also served as chair of the senate judiciary committee. From 1969 to 1980, he was a member of the central executive committee of the Kentucky Democratic Party and also officiated as a special hearing officer. His long career in county government began with two terms (1963–1973) as county commissioner with Judge Andrew J. Jolly. In 1974 Hehl succeeded Jolly as Fiscal Court judge; he served in this capacity until 1982, although during the last five years of his county judgeship, the position’s title was county judge-executive. Kentucky governor John Y. Brown Jr. (1979–1983) appointed Hehl to an interim term as county circuit judge in 1983. The following year, Governor Martha Layne Collins (1983–1987) appointed him as Campbell Co. district judge, a post to which he was twice elected, continuing in this position until 1990. That same year, the chief justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court, Robert Stephens, announced Hehl’s ap-
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pointment as chief regional judge of the Sixth Appellate Court District; he served in this capacity until his retirement in 1990. Throughout Hehl’s lengthy tenure in public office, his exhaustive efforts on behalf of his Campbell Co. constituency helped to lay the groundwork for Northern Kentucky’s ongoing residential and industrial revitalization. His proactive legislative style and aggressive pursuit of state and federal funds for Northern Kentucky fostered the establishment of intrastate highways and bridges and sparked other projects that have since opened the area to expansive development. His 20-year stint on the Campbell Co. Fiscal Court saw the completion of I-275 through Campbell Co. and across the Ohio River, the construction of I-471, and the construction of the AA Highway in Campbell Co. and beyond. Such essential connector routes also fostered the birth of Northern Kentucky University at Highland Heights in the late 1960s and the school’s growth in the 1970s. The Commonwealth of Kentucky honored the significant contributions of both Hehl and former Kentucky governor Bert Combs (1959–1963) with the December 19, 1979, dedication of the CombsHehl Bridge; its heavily traveled double span carries six lanes of I-275 across the Ohio River at Brent. Hehl is also the recipient of the National Jaycees’ Distinguished and Unselfish Ser vice Award and the National Veterans of Foreign Wars’ Life Saving Award. Hehl’s peers on various professional and government organizations, such as the Chase Law School Alumni, the Campbell Co. Bar Association, the Kentucky Association of County Judge-Executives, the Northern Kentucky Transportation Committee, and the Northern Kentucky Area Planning Commission, have selected him as their president. Since his 1990 retirement, Hehl has remained a driving force of community involvement within Northern Kentucky. He has been active in various civic and fraternal organizations and has honored his hometown roots by serving as president of Newport’s Clem and Ann Buenger Boys & Girls Club and the Newport High School Alumni Association. In April 1994 Hehl was named chairperson of Newport’s Bicentennial Commission, a duty he executed with faithful precision. Hehl’s wife of 58 years, Helyn, died in October 2004. He currently resides in Fort Thomas with his present wife, Pat Zint Hehl. Beasley, David. “Hehl Rode New Highways to Success as County Official,” KP, October 17, 1982, B2. ———. “Lambert Hehl Helped Bridge NKY and Ohio,” SC, January 30, 2005, 4B. Hehl, Lambert. Interview by Jan Mueller, April 28, 2006, Fort Thomas, Ky. Long, Paul A. “Judge Hehl Will Retire at Year’s End— Public Career Began in 1953,” KP, November 1, 1990, 1K–2K. Purvis, Thomas L., ed. Newport, Kentucky: A Bicentennial History. Newport, Ky.: Otto Zimmerman, 1996.
Janice Mueller
HEHL, LAMBERT, SR. (b. August 4, 1895, Newport, Ky.; d. December 26, 1970, Fort Thomas, Ky.). Lambert Hehl Sr., a respected civic leader, a