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| The ‘boss of Labor Day’ receives the 2009 W.C. Young Award |
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| Written by Berry Craig | |
| Saturday, 02 May 2009 | |
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Frances Willey seldom misses a chance to recruit volunteer workers for Paducah’s Labor Day program.
 “We need your help,” she told the crowd that came to see her receive the 2009 W.C. Young Award. “We’re not getting any younger.”
At age 85, Willey, who lives in Lone Oak, a Paducah suburb, is one of the oldest recipients of the Young Award, the Western Kentucky Area Council’s highest honor. It is named for the late W.C. Young, a national labor and civil rights leader from Paducah, an historic city where the Ohio and Tennessee rivers converge.
“’Miss Frances’ is the boss of Labor Day,” said Steelworker Jeff Wiggins, council president. “I just have the title.”
Willey, who was in the old Food Handlers Union, earned the award mainly for her work on the Western Kentucky Labor Day Committee, a non-profit, all-volunteer group that puts on the city’s annual Labor Day parade and other holiday weekend festivities. The Paducah program is one of the oldest and largest Labor Day observances in Kentucky.
Wiggins is the Labor Day Committee president. Willey is treasurer. “I am glad to welcome ‘Miss Frances’ to my special fraternity,’ he said.
Wiggins meant past Young award winners. Photos and brief biographical sketches of each of them, starting with Young in 1994, decorate a wall at the council hall in Paducah. “Every time I kind of get down and want to give up, I look at all these people on the wall and I get going again.
“‘Miss Frances’ is a special person to me. I can’t think of anybody more deserving of this award than ‘Miss Frances.’”
Nobody at the award banquet disagreed. A parade of well-wishers stepped to the microphone to praise the Illinois-born honoree who came to western Kentucky after World War II. “Everybody in this room dearly loves Frances Willey,” said Bill Londridgan, state AFL-CIO president.
“You’ve been a blessing to me,” said Donna Steele, a Steelworker who served as council secretary-treasurer for many years. She gave Willey an appreciation plaque from AIM-UNITE! Chapter 22, a union retirees group to which Willey belongs.
Kentucky Labor Secretary J.R. Gray presented Willey with what turned out to be her second “Ambassador of Labor” certificate.
Gray also remembered Young as “a very dear friend who could teach you a lot about living, a lot about working and a lot about unions. He was a godsend to all of us. He set high standards for all of us to follow.”
State Rep. Fred Nesler, D-Mayfield, the program’s featured speaker, also lauded Willey and Young. “He was a wonderful individual and a wonderful gentleman. He was an elegant man and an elegant speaker.”
Robert Coleman, Young’s first cousin and a former city commissioner, called Young “my mentor who was more like a brother to me.” He saluted Willey “as the number one person who is keeping that Labor Day program going.”
Machinist and Area Council Vice President Benny Adair, who was also the W.C. Young dinner emcee, handed Willey the shiny Young Award plaque. It honored her for her “support and dedication to the working men and women of Western Kentucky and America.”
McCracken County Judge-Executive Van Newberry and Sheriff Jon Hayden praised her, too. “I wouldn’t be sheriff without this lady,” said Hayden of Willey, who volunteered in his campaign.
Linda Downing, who serves on the Labor Day committee with Willey, said the honoree was “everything that a friend is supposed to be.”
Adair said the purpose of the W.C. Young Award is to “honor a great union leader and the great union leaders who follow in his footsteps.”
The dinner, which was recently held at a Paducah restaurant, followed the annual Workers Memorial Day service at the council hall. Gray and Londrigan were the main speakers at the service, which Wiggins hosted. |
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| Last Updated ( Saturday, 02 May 2009 ) |
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