http://http://www.kentucky.com/living/index.xml News, sports, and entertainment from Kentucky.com en-us Copyright 2008 Kentucky.com Living 60 Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:10:10 EST http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss McClatchy Interactive's Workbench webmaster@kentucky.com http://www.kentucky.com/living/story/370475.html http://www.kentucky.com/living/story/370475.html Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:23 EDT
The life is not glamorous no matter who you ask. You have your admirers, of course, and, if you're colorful and it's antebellum Lexington and certain established rules are being flouted, you have your certain brand of fame.

Belle Brezing was the most successful madam this town ever had. The bed she (and others) slept in for 40 years was bought at the 1894 Exposition in San Francisco and was later sold for a whopping $30,000 at auction simply because it was hers. It is slept in every night in a private home in Lexington and has inspired the Downtown Lexington Corp. to run its first-ever bed race downtown Thursday afternoon in her honor.

From hooker to legend in one easy step? Not really. She owes a debt of gratitude for her longevity to native Kentuckian John Marsh and his better-known wife, Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone With the Wind, who just might have immortalized Brezing forever as the flamboyant Belle Watling in her Southern masterpiece, but repeatedly and vehemently denied it. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/living/story/356128.html http://www.kentucky.com/living/story/356128.html Tue, 25 Mar 2008 09:55 EDT
The issues are what kids talk about with each other and are passionate about, she said.

Kids like my books because I don't preach to them, Draper said. They like that it's on their level. I don't talk down to them.

Draper, who lives in Cincinnati and has taught high school English for 25 years, is passionate about teaching and writing. The National Teacher of the Year in 1997, she is a prolific author and is a five-time winner of the Coretta Scott King Literary Award. Her book Copper Sun is currently on The New York Times' children's paperback best-seller list. ]]>