Lives remembered: Reflecting on some of 2024’s notable deaths in Lexington and across KY

John Robert “Johnny” Boone, 80

Boone, who once ran a multi-state marijuana-growing operation known as the Cornbread Mafia, died June 14 at Village of Lebanon. He was known to some as the “Godfather of Grass” and the “King of Pot.”

Boone developed his reputation by running a 29-farm, nine-state marijuana-growing operation. An assistant U.S. attorney described the operation in a 1989 Herald-Leader article as “the largest domestic marijuana-producing organization in the history of the United States.”

Boone, a Washington County native, served multiple periods in prison for drug activity.

Bob Brown, 82

Brown, a pastor and IBM project manager who helped lead a movement that drew attention to racial disparities in education and other areas of life in Fayette County, died on Sept. 1.

Brown was a former board chairman of the Lexington Housing Authority and was one of the earliest members of the Fayette County Public Schools Equity Council. He also was part of the African American Education Coalition, which included P.G. Peeples, president and CEO of the Urban League of Lexington-Fayette County, the Rev. C.B. Akins, state Rep. George Brown and council member and citizens’ advocate John Wigginton.

Brown graduated from the old Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in 1959 and later earned a business management degree from Xavier University. He grew up attending Main Street Baptist Church in Lexington.

J. Michael Brown, 74

Brown, a long-time advisor to the Beshear family, died Jan. 12.

Brown served as Andy Beshear’s secretary of the Executive Cabinet from 2019 to 2022, and also served in the administration of former Gov. Steve Beshear as the secretary of the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, making him the first African American to hold that position.

Brown was also the deputy attorney general for Andy Beshear during his term as attorney general. Brown and his wife Joan were honorary co-chairs of Andy Beshear’s second inauguration.

“I am truly hurting over the loss of my long-time friend and advisor,” Andy Beshear said in a statement after Brown’s death. “Michael made a positive difference in the lives of so many people — including mine. His guidance and advice were unmatched, and so was his friendship. Throughout his career, he served our country and state with poise and decency.”

Robby Cosenza, 50

Cosenza, a talented Lexington musician who performed with a litany of bands and worked on more than 100 albums, died Feb. 18 after a two-year battle with cancer, shortly after celebrating his 50th birthday.

Cosenza was a a drummer, guitarist and songwriter. He performed with a long list of acts, including Pontius CoPilot, The Apparitions, Vandaveer, These United States, The Scourge of the Sea, Horse Feathers, The Tarbox Ramblers, The Wags and Cosenza’s solo project, The Fanged Robot.

Born in New York, Cosenza moved to Lexington with his mother and sister in the mid-1980s. He was a graduate of Tates Creek High School.

Cosenza wrote in March 2022 that he had been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called leiomyosarcoma. He chronicled his fight on a CaringBridge.org webpage, often ending his journal entries with an apropos song lyric.

Stanley Demos, 104

Demos, a man virtually synonymous with fine dining in Lexington for generations, died Aug. 26.

Demos was known for establishing the Coach House Restaurant on South Broadway as the epitome of elegant dining in Lexington opening in 1969, serving movers and shakers, as well as ordinary Kentuckians out for a special, fancy celebration. He also wrote a food column for the Lexington Herald-Leader and hosted a cooking show on WKYT-TV.

Demos was born in Bulgaria in 1920 and emigrated to Cincinnati in 1938. He was recruited to come to Lexington as food service director at the new Imperial House Hotel in 1964 and five years later he purchased the Coach House Restaurant, which he ran until he retired in 1989.

Cecil Dunn, 86

Dunn, a Lexington attorney and former executive director of the Hope Center, died March 23 after a short illness.

Dunn, a native of Richmond, was a graduate of the University of Kentucky College of Law and the Lexington Theological Seminary. His legal career spanned 60 years, highlighted by focusing on the development of affordable multi-family housing.

Dunn spent more than two decades championing the Hope Center, emphasizing that it not only provides for the immediate needs for food and shelter of the clients it serves but also addresses the underlying issues related to homelessness, such as substance abuse, employment needs and mental illness.

Dunn was also an assistant county attorney and criminal trial commissioner, and he served as special prosecutor for the state during the investigation into the 1977 Beverly Hills Supper Club fire, which left 165 people dead.

Henry Earl, 74

Earl, a local Lexingtonian who gained fame for being arrested over 1,000 times, died in late May.

Earl, nicknamed “James Brown,” had been arrested about 1,300 times since the Division of Community Corrections of Lexington Fayette Urban County Government began computerized booking in 1992. Most of the arrests were for misdemeanor charges related to public alcohol intoxication.

Court records show his final public alcohol intoxication case happened in April 2017. Later in the year he got sick and was admitted to Owenton Healthcare and Rehabilitation Facility, according to Ginny Ramsey, co-founder of Lexington’s Catholic Action Center. That’s where he has spent the last seven years, receiving care from the staff at the facility.

Bernie Faulkner, 77

Faulker, a legendary musician and founding member of the popular band Exile, died in Franklin, Tenn., on Dec. 1, according to his obituary.

Faulker was a Hazard native and a 1965 graduate of Hazard High School. His obituary said his musical career spanned more than 50 years, and he played a key role in Exile’s evolving sound and image during their formative years.

Faulker also collaborated with Troy Gentry, Billy Ray Cyrus and Tracy Lawrence during his musical career, according to WYMT. After retiring from music, he managed Faulkner’s car dealership in Hazard for many years before moving to Tennessee.

Wilhelmenia Fernandez-Smith, 75

Fernandez-Smith, a renowned soprano and local special education teacher, died Feb. 2 at her home in Lexington.

Fernandez-Smith was known for her performance in the 1981 French thriller “Diva.” She also performed throughout Europe and the United States during her operatic career.

Fernandez-Smith began spending more time in Central Kentucky after Andrew Smith returned to the area in 1996 to direct the voice program at Kentucky State University. She eventually left her home base in Philadelphia to settle in Lexington.

Fernandez-Smith was a special education teacher at Tates Creek Elementary School and a member of Main Street Baptist Church.

Father Norman Fischer, 50

Fischer, a Catholic priest who ministered to hundreds of Lexingtonians from St. Peter Claver Church, died July 14 while traveling out of state.

Fischer was known for his work in social justice and among marginalized communities in Lexington at St. Peter Claver, which was built in 1875 to educate Black children and minister to Black Catholics in Lexington. He also was a chaplain at Lexington Catholic High School.

Fischer had been on sabbatical but was helping with Catholic Heart Work Camp in Wilmington, Del. when he died, according to Bishop John Stowe.

Robert “Bob” Gable, 90

Gable, a Frankfort native and longtime leader in the Republican Party in Kentucky, died Nov. 29 at Baptist Health Lexington.

Gable is credited with helping grow the Republican Party into the majority it has in the state today. He served as chairman of the state Republican Party from 1986 to 1994 and ran for governor in 1975 and 1995. He also unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for U.S. senator in 1972.

Gable was born in New York City and grew up in Oregon and Arizona. He was a 1956 graduate of Stanford University and a Navy veteran.

Kate Kaufling, 20

Kaufling, a University of Kentucky dancer, died March 31 after a battle with cancer.

Kaufling, a sophomore, fought osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer. It’s the most common type of bone cancer and is most common in adolescents, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Kaufling was an Assumption High School and nursing student at UK, according to her obituary. She was also a member of the Tri Delta sorority.

Rhonda Massie, 51

Massie, the wife of U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-KY, died June 27.

Rhonda Massie’s obituary says she was the valedictorian of Lewis County High School’s graduation class of 1991. She met Thomas Massie in high school and they got married in 1993.

Rhonda Massie earned a Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1995, according to her obituary. She and her family moved back to Kentucky after having children.

“Her family was the thing she was most proud of. Rhonda relished in being a wife, mother, daughter and mamaw,” her obituary said.

Bettye Lee Mastin, 97

Mastin, a former Lexington Herald-Leader journalist whose career lasted over 50 years, died May 8.

Mastin covered architecture, helping the city appreciate and preserve its history. Former Herald-Leader managing editor and columnist Tom Eblen said she was one of the first women reporters at the paper.

Mastin began working as a proofreader for the Lexington Herald in 1944, while she was a student at the University of Kentucky. After graduating with honors, she joined the newspaper full-time in 1950, writing about Central Kentucky homes until her retirement in 2000.

Mastin came to be known as “one of the authorities on antebellum architecture in Central Kentucky,” Eblen said.

Patrick Mitchell, 66

Mitchell, a hugely talented artist who shared his craft across genres from Lexington’s Lyric Theatre to Broadway, died Sept. 12 after a brief illness.

Mitchell had roots in New York but went to high school in Lexington and attended Kentucky State University. He was an early volunteer at RadioLex, developing the “Kiss of Lyfe” music show and “I’m Too Old For This,” in which he explored issues of aging with friend and co-host Debora Logan Lawson.

Mitchell went on to co-found Message Theater, an African-American theater company based at the Lyric Theatre in Lexington’s East End. Some of his acting roles included Othello and Malcolm X in Broadway and off-Broadway productions.

Dr. George Nichols, 77

Nichols, who founded and ran Kentucky’s medical examiner’s program for 20 years, died on Nov. 20.

Nichols was appointed as Kentucky’s first Chief Medical Examiner in 1977, according to his obituary. He performed an estimated 10,000 autopsies during his 20 years in the office.

One of his most notable autopsies was on Zachary Taylor, a former United States President buried in Louisville. His obituary says there was speculation that Taylor was poisoned, but Nichols found no evidence to support the claim.

After retiring from the medical examiner’s office, Nichols started a medical-legal consulting firm, where he worked for 28 years, according to his obituary.

Zach Pickard, 17

Pickard, a local boy who had the rare rapid-aging disease progeria, died Sept. 1.

Pickard was diagnosed with the disease as a baby. Progeria patients — and there are only a few in the world — have tiny bodies and bald heads with prominent veins. They lack body fat, their tiny fingers seeming almost too frail to take up pen and paper.

The Herald-Leader wrote an article about Pickard in 2018, highlighting his passions for the band Queen, Nintendo Labo robots and adventures with his beloved dog Carmen.

Albert Robinson, 85

Robinson was a former Kentucky politician who died Dec. 2, according to WYMT.

Robinson was born at Silver Mine Camp in Clay County but grew up in the East Bernstadt area of Laurel County, WYMT reported. He was a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1972-1985 and 1987-1989, and a member of the Kentucky Senate from 1994-2005 and 2013-2021.

Robinson’s career of service to Kentucky lasted more than 50 years, according to WYMT.

Raymond “Ray” Sabbatine, 74

Sabbatine, the longtime director of corrections at the Fayette County Detention Center from 1989 to 2001, died April 20.

Sabbatine began his criminal justice career in the early 1970s. He was elected jailer in 1989 and held the title until he retired in 2001.

During this time, Sabbatine oversaw the construction of the Fayette County Detention Center on Old Frankfort Pike. The state-of-the-art, $69 million facility came in under budget and was designed with input from horse farm owners surrounding the jail’s acreage.

After his retirement as county jailer, he also invested in expanding pole vaulting in Kentucky. He began coaching high school students and opened an indoor pole vaulting facility in Shelbyville that operated as the nonprofit, Kentucky Elite Athletics.

Julian “Dick” Simpson, 66

Simpson, a Fayette County Public Schools employee who taught journalism, died Dec. 19 in Lexington, according to his obituary.

Simpson, born in Lexington, spent 36 years as an employee with FCPS. His obituary said he launched Channel 13 at FCPS announcing many middle and high school sporting events.

Simpson earned a degree in video journalism from the University of South Carolina, according to his obituary. He was Channel 13’s station manager for the final 10 years of his career.

Guy Strong, 93

Strong, an athlete who won a national championship with the University of Kentucky men’s basketball team in 1951, died May 19 at the VA hospital in Lexington, according to his obituary.

Strong was born in Irvine and led Irvine High School to the Sweet 16 state tournament in 1948, according to his obituary. He received an invitation from Adolph Rupp to try out for the Kentucky basketball team, an audition he ultimately passed along with Bill Spivey. He played basketball and baseball at UK from 1948-51.

Strong later transferred to Eastern Kentucky University. His athletic career at EKU was briefly interrupted between 1952-54 while serving in the U.S. Army in the Korean War, according to his obituary. He returned to EKU for the 1954-55 season and lettered in basketball and baseball.

After his playing career, Strong spent many years coaching at the high school and collegiate level. He was a member of eleven halls of fame, including the Kentucky High School Athletics Hall of Fame, the Kentucky Athletics Hall of Fame and the EKU Athletics Hall of Fame.

Bob Tripure, 85

Tripure, a legendary high school baseball and basketball coach and member of multiple halls of fame, died March 23 at his home in the Chevy Chase neighborhood in Lexington.

Tripure, “Coach Trip,” led Henry Clay High School’s baseball team to a state championship in 1973, led Henry Clay’s girls basketball team to a state championship in 1990 and led Lexington Catholic to a girls basketball state championship in 1999. He is the only coach in Kentucky high school girls basketball history to lead two different schools to state titles.

Tripure coached for four decades and retired in 1999. He compiled a record of 384-72 in his 15-year career as a girls basketball coach.

Tripure graduated from Georgetown High School there and attended Georgetown College in Kentucky where he played baseball and earned his degree in education. Upon graduation, he married fellow Georgetown College graduate Betty Baker and they moved to Lexington where both became teachers.

Johnnie Turner, 76

Turner, a Republican state Senator and Harlan attorney, died on Oct. 22 after a lawn mowing accident.

Turner was injured more than a month earlier when he drove a mower into the deep end of an empty swimming pool at his home, Kentucky State Police said at the time. His death was the result of injuries sustained in that tragedy.

Turner won his Senate seat in the 2020 general election battle over longtime former senator Johnny Ray Turner by almost eight percentage points. He was running for re-election in District 29, which includes Bell, Floyd, Harlan, Knott and Letcher counties.

This story was originally published January 1, 2025 at 5:00 AM.