Ten years ago, Midway’s Helen Roach Rentch shared wisdom apropos for today

Scott White

Managing Editor

 

We are celebrating Pride Month this June. Last week, I highlighted Midway’s passage of a Fairness Ordinance enacted on June 1, 2015, as an example of courage we should celebrate, remember and emulate today. To write this column, I did some research by dipping into The Woodford Sun’s archives to read how the Sun had covered this news.

I am always amazed about discoveries just waiting to be found, dusted off and lifted up from the Sun’s archives. Not all, but some, can teach us not only about our past, but what lessons our past offers us . . . if we only consider how informative the past is to the problems our world throws at us. I believe Midway’s passage of a Fairness Ordinance, which directly led to the adoption of similar, though weaker ones in Versailles and Woodford County, is this type of watershed event that ripples forward . . . an ongoing inspiration. 

Over the weekend, I made my regular trip to the History Room at the Woodford County Library and began reading the June 11, 2015, edition of the Sun, making notes for the items to be summarized in this week’s “10 Years Ago” feature. While there, I found another nugget of real gold I want to share as we celebrate Pride Month (and plan to revisit in February 2026 for Black History Month). But first, I need to set it up.

Do you know Helen Roach Rentch? If you have lived in Midway for more than a week you probably do. For those of us from Versailles or the county, or who have lived here for more than a few years, you likely do too. Helen is, how can I put it? A gentle wind of wisdom and experience which, unbeknownst on first meeting, has lived a life of true consequence. A life committed in real terms to social justice issues spanning the women’s movement, reckoning with the consequences of a racist society and the rights of LGBTQ persons . . . plus many more.

Helen is more than a community’s conscience. And, her words are informed by a lived experience on the front lines.

Helen is a member of one of a longtime, multi-generational Midway family, the Parrish-Roach family, which operated the famous Parrish Hill Farm, where her parents moved during her 9th grade year following the death of her great-great aunt Lily Stone Parrish. Her brother, Jim, practices family medicine in Midway, as did her father before his death. Her other brother, Tom, now deceased, was a successful horseman, including breeding, owning and racing a Kentucky Derby winner. Her mother helped secure the grant for Woodford County’s first public swimming pool.

However, you would not know that from Helen – as a young woman, she consciously eschewed a life of privilege in the “Bluegrass Aristocracy,” opting instead for a life of service. 

This space does not permit even a summary of her work, but after many years spent in Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia helping coal miners and their widows with social security and black lung benefits and shining light on the disaster of strip mining.  She returned to college when her children were young, for a nursing degree. With this she practiced in Public Health in West Virginia, and after returning to Midway in 1994, at Eastern State Hospital in Lexington. She retired after 15 years at Eastern State Hospital and then became a nurse in her brother’s medical practice in Midway where she still works the occasional day.

The catalyst for Helen’s involvement in civil right issues occurred in 1964 when a minister at Midway Christian Church, which she grew up in, encouraged her to participate in the March on Frankfort led by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

Helen says not only did this experience awaken her to the ongoing civil rights movement, but, “when I saw that the very same girls who had integrated my 3rd grade classroom at Midway were also there at the March, I knew it was right… , and it changed the course of my life.”

Since returning to Midway, Helen helped found The Homeplace at Midway, a cutting-edge senior living campus in Midway; served on the Midway-Versailles-Woodford County Human Rights Commission; served as a member of the Frontier Nursing University Advisory Board; serves as an ambassador for Midway University; directs her family’s charitable foundation, which gives small grants to local community nonprofits; among many other roles too long to list in this context.

Suffice it to say, you are truly blessed if you know Helen, and can tap into her deep well of experience and wisdom. Plus, she has a sophisticated understanding of the current political maelstrom, is remarkably well-read and tells a great story. She is a helluva good friend to have on your side.

Now, with this context, reprinted in full below is the letter to the editor which was published in the Sun on June 11, 2015. There isn’t an iota that can be added to improve it. Given the times we live in, Helen’s words are as contemporary as if they were written for publication this week.

Dear Editor of the Sun:

I am pleased to recognize the Midway City Council and Mayor Grayson Vandegrift for doing the right thing in passing the Fairness Ordinance. I appreciated too the good process which allowed open discussion and heartfelt expressions.

I find I want to correct a statement about history which I thought (Midway council member) Libby Warfield made. If I heard (…) it right, she suggested Midway had always been “fair” and did not need a law to integrate our schools. When she entered the school system in 1958, we were integrated without open racial strife or rancor. What I want to point out is that when I entered the Midway Independent Public School System in 1952, it was not integrated and it was not until the Supreme Court had ruled in 1954 that “separate but equal” was inherently unfair and unjust that the Midway School Board did actually integrate our two racially separated schools.

I vividly remember the day we did integrate in 1955 or 1956 because it was on that day that I became aware for the first time that race was a social factor in our community and made a big difference in all our lives.

My point being that fairness and justice in our form of government is not established by good will but only by the force of law.

True, Midway responded to that legal determination sooner than most anyone else in the state, and sooner than Versailles did, which was a factor putting off by several years Midway’s willingness to consolidate with Versailles into Woodford County High School. Hurrah for us that all of Woodford County was integrated before most of the South. I know that many of us remember what a richness it added to our school years that we did have diversity.

I serve on the Midway-Versailles-Woodford County Human Rights Commission because I believe the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was extremely important in correcting injustice that existed as we were growing up. My life experience is that we have a democracy as our form of government only because we have a legal system which protects it.

I am grateful to live in a community that is small enough that we know each other in many capacities. I have come to realize over time that, while I may differ with someone on one issue, down the road I am going to bond with and rely on that person on another. This enables us to know each other as full human beings. It keeps us from labeling and stereotyping and shunning each other when we differ, and enables us to enjoy the richness of life in Woodford County.

Helen Rentch

Midway