Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea
Pee Wee Reese to “Visit” Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea Nov. 22

On Saturday, November 22, actor Dick Usher of Benton will bring to life Kentucky’s Baseball Hall of Fame Star – Pee Wee Reese at the Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea at 2:00 PM.

Baseball star Harold Henry Reese was born in Ekron, KY in 1918, and raised in Louisville where he became known as Pee Wee after winning a national marble tournament using ”pee wee” marbles. Reese became a great shortstop player and captain of the Brooklyn Dodgers, leading them to seven pennants and in 1955, a World Series win over the New York Yankees. His Baseball Hall of Fame plaque also recognizes his leadership role in supporting fellow teammate Jackie Robinson’s breaking of baseball’s color barrier in 1947.

Actor Dick Usher, who will present this dramatization, has performed in Paducah’s Market House Theater, and also played baseball with a semi-pro team in Paducah. Usher knew about Pee Wee Reese as a famous Kentucky baseball figure and often saw Reese on TV during his years as a network baseball announcer with CBS and later on with NBC.  After watching a Kentucky Humanities Council Chautauqua production, Usher became interested in portraying a Kentucky figure and began researching this Kentucky baseball personality.

This dramatization, Pee Wee Reese: Baseball Hall of Famer by actor Dick Usher will be held Saturday, November 22, 2008 at 2:00 PM at the Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea. This presentation is free and open to the public and is funded in part by the Kentucky Humanities Council, Inc and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea is located at 975 Walnut Meadow Road, just off Interstate 75 at exit 77 (Berea). The Center’s exhibits, shopping, and travel information areas are all open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and the café from 11:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Admission is free. The Center currently features works by more than 650 artisans from over 100 counties from all across the Commonwealth. For more information call 859-985-5448 or visit the Center’s web site at www.kentuckyartisancenter.ky.gov 

The Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea is an agency in the Tourism, Arts & Heritage Cabinet.