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Lincoln Bicentennial      

Lincoln events are called for rain

DIE-HARDS AREN'T DETERRED, BUT LAURA BUSH IS

By Greg Kocher

GKOCHER1@HERALD-LEADER.COM

HODGENVILLE --

Abraham Lincoln no doubt braved rain and ice growing up near here, but it was too much for Tuesday's kickoff of the national bicentennial celebration of his birth. The event was canceled.

"It is disappointing any time you plan for a major event like this and Mother Nature doesn't cooperate," said Iris LaRue, director of the Lincoln Museum in Hodgenville. "But what can you do?"

First lady Laura Bush canceled her appearances in Hodgenville, where she was to speak at the Lincoln birthplace, and in neighboring Hardin County, where she had been going to tour damage from last week's storms.

The National Park Service said there were no plans to reschedule the kickoff event. It was canceled because of icy parking lots and speakers' stages.

Lincoln was born 199 years ago Tuesday, but the bicentennial celebration starts this year and goes to 2010.

Several local events went on despite the weather. During a pouring rain, Hodgenville Mayor Terry Cruse put a wreath Tuesday morning at the Lincoln statue on the town's public square.

"We're going to go on and have what we can have here," Cruse said.

Gov. Steve Beshear spoke at a luncheon at Abraham Lincoln Elementary School. A revamped Lincoln Heritage Trail, a scenic route detailing sites of significance in Lincoln's life, was dedicated Tuesday afternoon.

And visitors ate cake at a daylong birthday party in the Community Room next to the Lincoln Museum on Hodgenville's square. One cake was a bust of Lincoln, dark beard and all.

The weather didn't stop two Lincoln look-alikes from attending the morning ceremonies.

"I think it's a great opportunity for people to remember their history and what we've stood for as a nation," said Mike Cox of Nashville.

John Voehl of Denver, another Lincoln "presenter," as they prefer to be called, acknowledged that people would have been cold had they been standing in the wet weather.

"But," he said, "Lincoln was no softy."quite A damper