(This article first appeared in the January print edition of the Hendersonian.)
Before we step fully into 2025 and look forward to what the new year will bring, it’s a good practice to look back, at least a bit, at what occurred in the previous year. We went through our website in search of the most viewed articles of each month in 2024. We’re showing you the headline and number of views, the first paragraphs of the top-read story of each month, and a brief commentary after each. Click on the headline to re-read the articles.
January
Second Street roundabouts will be finished in 2025: 9,176 views
By Vince Tweddell
Three roundabouts that are a part of the design for the entrance from I-69 to Second Street should be complete by the end of 2025, said the project manager with Ragle, Inc., the company completing the construction.
The first official announcement of the Second Street roundabouts completion date garnered plenty of community interest. In fact, the January article was the top viewed on the website for many months after.
February
Henderson’s Sitex acquired by Cintas, a Fortune 500 firm: 1,731 views
By Chuck Stinnett
One of Henderson’s oldest family-owned industries has been sold to a giant competitor.
Industrial uniform and linen provider Sitex Corp., which traces its roots back 63 years, was acquired by Cintas Corp., a Fortune 500 company.
“We’re a Cintas company now,” said Sitex CEO Wes Sights in an interview.
One thing for certain that the news published by the Hendersonian this past year taught us: Hendersonians love to read about other Hendersonians and Henderson-owned businesses doing big things. A big story in February about Henderson-owned Sitex selling to Cintas Corp. was one of many about Hendersonians doing well throughout the year.
March
Local woman was the original ‘Swiftie’: 2,393 views
By Donna B. Stinnett
In a photo album of memories from her life, Adrianne Egan Garber saved some snapshots of two children she baby-sat as a teen-ager growing up in Pennsylvania.
Included is a holiday photo card with a hand-written message wishing her a merry Christmas in 1992. It pictures a tow-headed toddler and her younger brother in matching red-and-green plaid outfits.
That tow-headed toddler is Taylor Swift, now one of the most famous pop music icons in the world.
Garber said her parents were friends with Andrea and Scott Swift, Taylor’s parents, in their Pennsylvania community. The Swift home, and their Christmas tree farm was across the country road, and Garber’s brothers also did small jobs for the farm…
Every now and then, local people rub shoulders with celebrities. Or should I say, celebrities rub shoulders with Hendersonians. In March, our top-viewed story shared details about when local woman Adrianne Egan Garber worked as Taylor Swift’s babysitter when she was a girl in Pennsylvania.
April
A venture of three couples, Cap & Cork opens on Water Street soon: 5,172 views
By Chuck Stinnett
In just eight years, the dining options in Henderson have reached a depth and breadth probably unmatched in its history.
The downtown dining scene alone has expanded with the addition of cuisine ranging from Mexican to Mediterranean, Southern comfort to barbecue and specialty coffee, tea and shakes.
Within days will come the much-anticipated opening of Cap & Cork at 104 N. Water St. There, a little red brick structure that has been home to a series of small restaurants has been expanded — reconstructed, really — to a two-story cream-colored edifice that’s among the most striking downtown…
In addition to enjoying reading about other fellow residents, Hendersonians also really like to read about new restaurants coming to town. They also like to read about bourbon, especially if the new restaurant has an outstanding selection of it. Chuck Stinnett hit on all these in his April preview of the coming Cap & Cork, which eight months later seems like a downtown staple.
May
Local first-grader is nation’s best cursive writer: 703 views
By Vince Tweddell
Levi McCamish, a student at Arrow Classical Education, was recently recognized as the best cursive writer—not in the school, the county or the state, but the nation.
Levi, 6, was sent a letter on April 22 from New American Cursive Penmanship that notified him of his victory for cursive writing in the first-grade boys division.
At his school last week, Levi said he was such a good cursive writer “because I’m an artist” and “God made me one.”
Also, “I practiced a lot.”
Here’s another story about a Hendersonian. This first-grader was named the best cursive writer in the nation in late April.
June
Some said he wouldn’t live.
Now Carter Lawrence is an HCHS graduate: 5,243 views
By Vince Tweddell
Carter Lawrence, born 29 weeks early with a condition called necrotizing entercolitis, weighed 3 pounds, 2 ounces at birth.
“He about fit in my hand when he was born,” says his father, Rick Lawrence.
Necrotizing entercolitis is a gastrointestinal issue that most often affects premature babies, and it’s serious, often fatal. Some doctors didn’t give much hope that Carter would ever live a normal existence, if he lived at all. If he did survive, he would be bedridden with special needs and a low quality of life, they said.
One surgeon told Rick and Carter’s mother, Susan, that it was “immoral, unethical and cruel” to perform surgeries on Carter to keep him alive.
Sometimes we publish stories in the print edition first and later transfer them over to the web. So, there’s no way for sure to say how many eyes were on an article in print before it comes to the web (though we do print 5,000 copies and the vast majority are picked up each month). That said, this feature story about Henderson County High School graduate Carter Lawrence is impressive because it was in the print edition first, and then when it was moved to the web, 5,000-plus more readers online saw it.
July
Cruise ship Viking Mississippi makes a surprise stop in Henderson Tuesday: 2,593 views
By Vince Tweddell
Hendersonians who bemoaned the loss of paddlewheerlers docking at the downtown riverfront when the American Queen Voyages shut down its business in February may feel reinvigorated by a surprise Tuesday docking from a different company—“even if it’s just a one-time thing,” said Henderson Tourist Commission Executive Director Abby Dixon.
Dixon said Viking River Cruises, which has tours that go up and down the Mississippi River, will dock its ship, Viking Mississippi, at 7 a.m. Tuesday. It will depart at 4 p.m. later that day.
She said the captain of the Viking Mississippi contacted Henderson City Manager Buzzy Newman Sunday afternoon asking about the possibility of docking here. The ship has been docked in Paducah for the past two days, Dixon said Monday morning.
The company doesn’t run tours on the Ohio River, but flooding on the upper Mississippi has caused it to turn off onto the Ohio, Dixon said.
Henderson also loves to read about Henderson succeeding, which is what happened in July when Henderson Tourist Commission Executive Director Abby Dixon and her staff rounded up the troops to host a Viking River Cruises touring boat and its passengers. Dixon and other local officials got the call on a Sunday and sprang into action for the boats Tuesday morning arrival.
August
Lucy Nash has died and her organs will be donated, her father writes: 245,094 views
By Vince Tweddell
The father of Lucy Nash wrote on a social media post Tuesday afternoon that his daughter has irreversible loss of brain function and her organs will be donated.
“Our baby, our Lucy, found this was the path she must take,” Ryan Nash wrote. “Late Saturday night, a sudden change in Lucy’s vitals caused a flurry of activity and tearful encouragement and prayers from her parents, all four of us, surrounding her bed. Since then, Lucy’s signs of being in control of her body have faded away. Her heart beats, medications keep her blood pressure steady to help her body. Her chest rises and falls, as a ventilator chooses every breath. Her eyes, bright blue, friendly and so compassionate, are fixed and unchanging under her sleeping eyelids.”
Hendersonians also pull together in times of tragedy. This was the case in August, when Cairo fourth-grader Lucy Nash died. But it wasn’t just locals who wanted to know about Lucy and showed they cared; the views were a staggering 245,000-plus, which is the most of any article ever for the Hendersonian. No doubt this article was shared by people around the country and probably the world.
September
Schools honor Katelyn Gibson, an HCHS student who died on Tuesday: 30,998 views
By Vince Tweddell
All county schools wore blue Friday to honor Katelyn Gibson, a Henderson County High School sophomore who died on Tuesday.
Gibson is remembered for many traits, among them her confident and sassy personality, according to her obituary.
Katelyn was active in HCHS’s FFA program, where current Assistant Principal for the Career and Technical Education J.T. Payne got to know her last year.
Payne agreed that Katelyn was confident. He said her confidence was on display at an FFA horsemanship competition last year in which she, a freshman, went up against many upperclassmen. Payne, who said he doesn’t know much about horsemanship, said he came out of a meeting before the event and reported back to Katelyn the specifics he learned in the meeting that she needed to do.
Her response, he said, was, “I’ve got it under control.” And then she went out and beat a lot of those upperclassmen.
In September, tragedy struck again when another student died unexpectedly. The initial story about HCHS sophomore Katelyn Gibson’s death also garnered much interest and sympathy from readers.
October
Hands can tell the silent story for those with dementia: 19,483 views
By Ane Crabtree
Hands are wondrous. They experience loving and unloving moments. They lift us, envelop us in comfort, most especially when they are our mother’s hands. Often they express what the mind and body cannot—when words do not readily arrive.
With the onslaught of dementia, one may find that hands begin to move more often, a kind of space filler, perhaps, when at a loss for a means of expression, or of remembering the verbal example of what we mean. Sometimes our hands quite literally complete our sentences…Her hands, however, are truth tellers. They glide, wring, pray, and punctuate the air when she agrees with the discussion, and more often, when she does not.
Henderson native Ane Crabtree, who has gone on to work on Hollywood sets and television shows around the country and world, often comes back to town to help with her mother, Kimiko. Sometimes she writes about the challenges of caring for her now that she has dementia. Here’s a piece Crabtree wrote for the October print issue that later was moved to the web.
November
Design work underway for a reborn Soaper Hotel: 3,022 views
By Chuck Stinnett
One hundred years ago, Henderson leaders had a dream. Today, Rodger Brown has a vision.
The objective of each: Open a Soaper Hotel at the corner of Second and Main streets.
The mission of local businessmen in the early 1920s was to raise enough money to build a modern hotel from the ground up. The Richard Henderson Soaper Hotel opened in 1924.
For Brown, the goal is to gut the existing building and make it a hotel again, nearly 40 years after it stopped being a lodging establishment and started being used for a variety of offices, restaurants and miscellaneous purposes.
“My goal is the first quarter of 2026” for the Soaper to reopen as a boutique hotel, Brown said.
A new downtown project mixed with a local personality mixed with a historical aspect. That’s the recipe of a Chuck Stinnett article detailing Rodger Brown’s plan to transform the Soaper Building into a boutique hotel. People are excited about the iconic building’s future.
December
Rideout wants to build on the legacy of George Day: 5,035 views
By Vince Tweddell
In buying and running Day’s Garden Center, Andy Rideout hopes to honor the legacy that former owner George Day built in his 50-plus years running the business.
Rideout closed on the property Friday afternoon at about 3:30 p.m. On Monday morning, he was in the building, sizing up the amount of work to be done before his hoped-for grand re-opening sometime in April. (He hasn’t yet set a date.)
Although faced with 50-years of books and papers and other assorted accumulations—and the reorganization needed to make a place your own—Rideout brimmed with excitement about the possibilities.
“I’m going to strive to (give) the level of service George provided here,” he said.
We closed out the year with much the same reading habits displayed the previous 12 months. Hendersonians loved reading about the goals of Andy Rideout and his wife, Laura, as they take over Day’s Garden Center, a purchase completed on Dec. 13. The story’s popularity can also be attributed to the longevity of George and Patty Day, who ran the successful business for some 50 years.
