Kentucky Inaugural Celebration
On February 11–12, 2008, the ALBC launched its two-year celebration of Lincoln's 200th birthday. The two day event began in Louisville at the historic Henry Clay Hotel. Pulitzer Prize winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin, McConnell Center senior fellow Dr. Thomas Mackey and African-American historian Dr. Gerald L. Smith addressed the crowd during the Lincoln on Leadership Symposium.
That evening, the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts hosted A Kentucky Salute to Abraham Lincoln. Popular radio journalist and Louisville native, Bob Edwards served as master of ceremonies. Performances included the Louisville Orchestra and opera soprano Angela Brown. Film producer Jerry Bruckheimer and his wife Linda Bruckheimer, a Kentucky native, welcomed the audience. American composer Peter Schickele premiered his new piece, Lincoln at Ease.
Capping the evening was award-winning actor Sam Waterston and Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer with their critically acclaimed production Lincoln Seen and Heard, a narrated and dramatic presentation of Lincoln’s life.
A snow storm hit that evening and the next morning, on Lincoln's 199th birthday, icy roads forced the cancellation of the formal inaugural ceremony at the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site in Hodgenville, KY.
First Lady Laura Bush was scheduled to deliver the keynote address. Other speakers included United States Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, ALBC Commissioners Tommy Turner and Harold Holzer, U.S. Congressman Ron Lewis (R-KY) and Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear. Award winning actor Sam Waterston was set to narrate the Gettysburg Address. Period music by the famed brass band Saxton's Cornet Band and the American Spiritual Ensemble was also planned.
Read more about this topic: Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission
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