Posted on Fri, Feb. 29, 2008

Canceled Lincoln event comes alive on Internet

HERALD-LEADER STAFF REPORT

Here's more evidence that Abraham Lincoln's ties to his native Kentucky will never be broken, neither by ice nor storms nor other forces of nature.

Severe weather forced the cancellation of the opening ceremony of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial on Feb. 12 in Hodgenville. But with the scheduled launch Tuesday of "Virtual Hodgenville" on the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission Web site (www.abrahamlincoln200.org), the public will be able to see a lot of material that would have been used at the ceremony.

The ceremony was to have featured first lady Laura Bush; U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne; LaRue County Judge Tommy Turner, a member of the national Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission and co-chairman of the commission in Kentucky; U.S. Rep. Ron Lewis, R-Ky., and actor Sam Waterston, who was to have delivered Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

Visitors to the Web site will be able to read the texts of the speeches and hear the music that had been planned for the ceremony. This will include period and patriotic music by Saxton's Cornet Band, the American Spiritual Ensemble and soprano Angela Brown.