In June 1986, a month after I graduated from college and started working as a reporter at the McLean County News, Charles Hayes Jr. launched a magazine called The Kentucky Explorer, inspired by The Kentucky Reader, a weekly magazine once used by Kentucky students statew
ide. “The popularity of The Reader gave proof that such a magazine for adults was wanted in Kentucky,” he wrote as Explorer neared its 30th anniversary.
“Kentucky Explorer has strived to save the valuable story of Kentucky and her people. The magazine has succeeded in its goals and continues to grow at a healthy pace. We have readers in every state and many foreign countries. More than 50,000 people read Explorer each month.”
That was five years ago. Earlier this year, Hayes announced that 2020 would be his last year as publisher. Hayes wrote and edited the first five years of Explorer alone, and then it became a passion he shared with his new bride, Donna Jean, who expanded Explorer from 64 to 112 pages and brought in the talents of editor Elesha Richardson and Darlene Moore. From their office in Jackson, they published 354 issues of original and previously published materials from a cadre of long-forgotten newspapers, books and magazines.
“Of course, I had hoped The Kentucky Explorer would continue long after I am gone … but with the deaths of my dear Donna and my younger brother, John, along with the dreadful effect of this global pandemic, that hope ended,” Hayes wrote in the November/December 2020 issue of the publication.
STOP THE PRESSES!
The Kentucky Explorer will live on! In February, under the able hands and editorship of Deborah Kohl Kremer, Kentucky Monthly will continue Hayes’ dream. It won’t be the 112 pages readers have come to expect, but we’ll highlight as best we can what people loved about Hayes’ “ugly duckling.” He called it that, not me.
While Charles, Elesha and Darlene enjoy some time in the sun, their readers hopefully will become our readers. Instead of Hayes sending out refunds, Kentucky Monthly will arrive in readers’ mailboxes for the duration of their subscriptions.
Standing features, such as “I Remember,” “Strictly Kentucky Genealogy” and “Kentucky Kinfolks,” will remain. Elesha sent us a large box of stories she had not yet used. It included old photos, handwritten letters, photocopied pages from past magazines, and even pages from a reader’s scrapbook full of notes and snapshots all related to historic floods in Kentucky. Also inside were clippings from newspapers from all over the state—some dating back more than 100 years. We’ve even ordered special paper to help replicate the feel of “our little magazine.”
From her home in Villa Hills, Deb said, “The box has the familiar smell of my grandma’s cedar chest, and I can’t wait to go through and read it all.” We hope you’ll join us for the journey.
Learn more about Kentucky Explorer or submit your story here.