ALEXANDRIA
RECORDER
Your Community Recorder newspaper serving the communities of southern Campbell County
THURSDAY, MAY 25, 2017
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Beverly Hills Supper Club site could be closer to memorial, sale Scott Wartman swartman@nky.com
Wayne Dammert of Alexandria. Brock and Dammert will both share their stories about what they saw happen after fire erupted in the club’s Zebra Room. Richard Riesenberg, Southgate fire chief at the time of the fire, will share memories of arriving on the scene of the fire. Southgate Mayor Jim Hamberg will speak. Speeches will start after a 30minute meet and greet at 2 p.m. Speeches are expected to last until about 4 p.m.
The pall that has lingered for decades over the remains of the Beverly Hills Supper Club has started to lift, if only a little. On the 40th anniversary of the fire that claimed 165 lives, local leaders and the owner of the property on which the club once stood said they believe they will soon return this hallowed ground to some use. A more permanent memorial on the property, they hope, will help. For awhile, the idea of anything going up on the 77-acre site in Southgate seemed a sacrilege to survivors. But that resistance has softened with time, and some survivors have not only accepted something might get built, but think it should. “It is a special site,” said Walter Bailey of Flower Mound, Texas. He’s the former Beverly Hill Supper Club busboy credited with saving hundreds of lives that night by storming the stage and telling patrons about the fire. “I feel for anyone that bought it. I hope they can get the best use out (of) it. Letting it sit there with weeds growing doesn’t quite make sense.” The honeysuckle-covered hillside in Southgate betrays little of its once-glamorous and tragic past. It was billed as “The Nation’s Showplace,” a place where A-listers such as Frank Sinatra and Jimmy Durante performed. The only hint of its legacy is a crumbled driveway pum-
See FIRE, Page 2A
See MEMORIAL, Page 2A
THE COMMUNITY RECORDER/NANCY DALY
THE COMMUNITY RECORDER/NANCY DALY
A wreath and stone markers in January by the gated road leading to the site of the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire. The third deadliest fire in US. history took place May 28, 1977, and claimed 165 lives.
A Kentucky Historical Marker designates the site of the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire. The third deadliest fire in U.S. history took place May 28, 1977, and claimed 165 lives.
Beverly Hills fire survivors to gather Chris Mayhew cmayhew@communitypress.com
SOUTHGATE – Survivors who can never forget the deadly night Beverly Hills Supper Club caught fire will gather for a 40th anniversary observance Sunday, May 28. Tales of survival and loss will be shared. Firefighters and police will be honored. Bagpipes and bugles will be played. Small groups will climb the hill to a makeshift memorial to pay their respects
where 165 people died May 28, 1977, at the popular nightspot. Now a vacant parcel of land, the hill was once frequented by Rat Pack crooners. Ceremonies will be 2-5 p.m. around a stage set near a roadside Kentucky historical marker in the 500 block of U.S. 27 marking the entrance to Beverly Hills Drive. Former Beverly Hills bus boy and author of a book about the fire, David Brock of Evendale, Ohio, has taken over organizing the memorial for the first time from fellow employee and survivor
NKY flags symbolize veteran suicides
Fort Thomas names Cheser superintendent mreinert@enquirer.com
Chris Mayhew cmayhew@communitypress.com
CRESCENT SPRINGS - A Northern Kentucky city planted 660 U.S. flags as a display of shock at the number of U.S. veteran or soldier suicides each month. Veterans planted flags Thursday evening in front of the Northern Kentucky 9/11 Memorial at Crescent Springs Community Park within view
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be the best in the world drives continuous improvement. I am looking forward to being part of FORT THOMAS - The this community, working Fort Thomas Board of with outstanding adminEducation named Karen istrators, teachers, staff Cheser as superintenand parents to provide dent of the Fort Thomas endless opportunities for Independent Schools. our students.” “I am thrilled to partCheser has been emner with the Fort Thomployed by Boone County as Board of Education to Cheser Schools since 2007 and is lead this district, where presently deputy superthe schools are the heart of the intendent and chief academic community,” Cheser said. officer, a position she has held “Fort Thomas is a rare find in since 2012. the United States, where not “Karen comes to us with imonly is a rich tradition of aca- pressive credentials and, more demic excellence well-known, but a desire to move schools to See CHESER, Page 2A Melissa Reinert
THE COMMUNITY RECORDER/CHRIS MAY
Howard Berry’s son, Army Staff Sgt. Joshua Berry, took his life in 2013.
of drivers on busy Buttermilk Pike. Crescent Springs Mayor Lou Hartfiel, a U.S. Air Force veteran, was shocked when he learned 22 veterans or soldiers
commit suicide each day, according to a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs study released in July 2016. Hartfiel See FLAGS, Page 2A
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