Jewels of Maysville - Generally

Our community has had the good fortune to have spawned some extraordinary people. Not that they were necessarily born here, nevertheless they have had their principal effect on the local level, for the betterment of us all. Martha Comer, the deceased editor of the Ledger-Independed and, before that, the Daily Independent, had a remarkable ability of capturing the essence of a person in lines of print. I always envied her art and the confidence with which she wrote. Toward the end of her career, she wrote a column called "Do You Know." It was usually most interesting, comprised principally of squibs about this and that. Reading the column, you were always impressed with the width of Martha's knowledge, that is until you bought a copy of the current U.S.News and World Report, where you would find most of the information she had imparted in her column for that week.

I toyed with the idea of suggesting to her that she write another column, perhaps once a month, on the "jewels" of Maysville, people who had made a real difference to the town. In this morning's paper, Kirby Wright wrote a tribute to the recently-deceased Felici Felice, former superintendent of the Mason County School System. He certainly was a jewel of Maysville, a largely unsung hero, responsible for upgrading our school system so that it became one of the best in the state. The school system now furnishes the superintendent with a very nice car to drive. In Mr. Felice's case, however, it was a state surplus police car, and he drove it until the wheels simply fell off. He didn't spend money foolishly.

Anyway, there are lots of people like Mr. Felice who live here and have made contributions to the quality of life in Maysville. From time to time, I will mention some of these people and, based on my own knowledge, say a little about them. In a lot of cases, the general public is unaware of the magnitude of their gifts and the number of lives they have touched.

You know, if you think about the meaning of community, it is far more than streets and buildings and neighborhoods; rather it is a sphere in which we all live and love, work and play, suffer and grieve; and each of us, in some measure, affects the others, for good or ill. Fortunately for Maysville, there are far more people who have affected us for good than for ill. It's what makes this such a phenomenal town. We all should probably appreciate it more than we do.

Stay tuned!