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Lincoln Bicentennial      

Weather may be very reminiscent

ICE, SNOW ON WAY FOR LINCOLN BIRTHDAY EVENT

ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOUISVILLE --

Abraham Lincoln's 199th birthday will be celebrated Tuesday at his birthplace just outside Hodgenville in LaRue County, helping kick off a two-year bicentennial commemoration of the nation's 16th president.

First lady Laura Bush is scheduled to headline a guest list that includes Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, Gov. Steve Beshear and members of Congress. Actor Sam Waterston will deliver Lincoln's Gettysburg address, a cornet band will play 19th-century music and the American Spiritual Ensemble will perform.

Organizers expect about 5,000 visitors at the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site.

One unwelcome development could be a blast of wintry weather that could recreate frigid conditions of 199 years earlier. A relative later recalled it was bitterly cold and sleeting the day Lincoln was born.

Weather forecasters said the Hodgenville area could get 1-3 inches of snow and perhaps a quarter-inch of ice from a winter storm that began Monday afternoon.

When the 90-minute celebration begins Tuesday morning, the precipitation could turn to a mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain, said Andrea Lammers, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Louisville.

"I'm hoping it won't be as cold and as nasty as they say it's going to be," said David Early, a spokesman for the national Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. "Everybody keeps telling me that Kentucky weather can change on the dime. I'm hoping for that."

The 10:30 a.m. ceremony will be televised on C-SPAN3 (Channel 447 for Insight Communications digital cable subscribers in Lexington), and through streaming video at www.c-span.org. The network's Washington Journal will have an hour-long look at Lincoln activities beginning at 7 a.m.

Lincoln was to be remembered Monday night at a ceremony at a Louisville performing arts center. The event included a musical tribute along with a dramatic presentation of Lincoln's life.