|
Congratulations to Laura Sandlin in Hazard. Sandlin was the first to identify Mystery Person #20 as Roy Goldsmith. Harold Loyld Baker in Modesto, California, Carlene Shackelford, & Ida Lee Hansel also came up with the correct answer.
|
|
Congratulations to Laura Sandlin in Hazard. Sandlin was the first to identify Mystery Person #20 as Roy Goldsmith. Harold Loyld Baker in Modesto, California, Carlene Shackelford, & Ida Lee Hansel also came up with the correct answer.
|
Joe Foley M. C. Napier Dudley Goodlette R. L. Collins John Gross Blondie Eblen
Clymon Shelton Zeke Smith Fred Combs Lus Oxley William Stanfill S. B. Snyder
Carl Seale Nell Harper Harry Greer J.E. Johnson Ern Begley John Copeland
Roy
Goldsmith was born on August 31st 1896 in Alabama. He decided to leave
home in 1916 and seek
his fortune in the coalfields of Kentucky. The laundry business
was his first love, even as a boy he earned extra money by taking in
cleaning and pressing. However this was not what first brought him
to Perry County. He had learned telegraphy from
a station agent in Alabama, and had taken a job with the Louisville and
Nashville Railroad, as a telegrapher. Roy, along with several other
men, was sent to Chavies as the railroad moved into Eastern
Kentucky. However he wasn't satisfied with his job so he resigned and
went to Fleming where he worked for the
Elkhorn Coal Company for several years. In 1919, he returned to Perry County,
determined to open a laundry. Goldsmith had more determination than
money, but with $425 dollars in cash, an 18 pound iron and a pressing
table, he and an assistant set up the Hazard Laundry business on the site of the
Grand Hotel on Main Street in Hazard. His first customer was
Barney Baker. Roy Goldsmith prospered and several years later
was able to buy the first pressing machine in Eastern Kentucky. It
really was quite a novelty because for many months it was the topic of
conversation and a street blocker on Main Street. His business was destroyed
in the 1927 flood and it was several days before he
could locate his equipment. When the water subsided, it was found
at Home Lumber Company. After recovering his equipment he moved
his business to Big Bottom (East Main Street) in the building that would
later occupy Collins Food Market. Several years later he made his
final move to a spot on East Main where he remained. Hazard
Cleaning and Laundry was a far cry from the original operation. By
1950, he employed over 75 people and had one of the largest payrolls in
Hazard. A fleet of seven trucks picked up and delivered the
laundry each day. Goldsmith's business had become the largest
laundry company in East Kentucky. Longtime employee Ted Griffin
worked at the business well over 30 years. Roy's nephew, Bill
Goldsmith headed the dry cleaning department and Sam Dillion was head of
the laundry department. Roy Goldsmith was in business in Hazard
for almost 50 years. He died in 1971 at the age of 73. Congratulations to Laura Sandlin of
Hazard, the first to identify Mystery Person #20.