Henderson history: City elected its first female mayor 25 years ago

Joan Hoffman, the first woman elected mayor of Henderson, has a strong connection to the first woman who ever sought that position.

I’ll have more to say at the end of this column about Margaret “Tardy” Nichols because 50 years ago she gave six-term Mayor Bill Newman his closest call ever.

“What’s interesting to me is that the other lady who ran – who did not win but came close – introduced my husband to me,” Hoffman said in The Gleaner of Nov. 4, 1998, the day after the election. More recently – just this past week – she said, “She was a really good friend and mentor to me.”

Hoffman was a political newcomer at the time. She was running against Mike Farmer, who had six consecutive terms as a city commissioner to his credit.

But, as Gleaner Editor Ron Jenkins wrote in an after-election analysis Nov. 8, her “civic background and career in education” drew a broad range of voters. “She ran far ahead in blue collar and lower income areas in addition to outpacing Farmer in the suburbs and other upper income precincts.”

In fact, the only precinct Farmer carried was Young, which is where he lived, and that was by a slim margin of 193 to 184.

The final tally was 4,203 to 2,902.

Hoffman attributed her success to “personal contact and the help of many, many, many people.” But she also thanked Judge-executive Sandy Watkins, a former student, who endorsed her candidacy a few days before the election.

“I’d like to think I would have won (without the endorsement), but I have to think this big margin … was at least partially due to it.”

The Gleaner of Oct. 30, 1998, reported the endorsement, in which Watkins explained that Hoffman had played an important role in his life. “She motivated me at a very early age,” he said. “She kept me focused on the direction I wanted to go with my life.”

Hoffman expressed satisfaction at the group of commissioners she would be serving with. “All seven candidates were tremendous candidates,” she said. “I knew from the beginning that any four who got elected, I would be able to work with. It’s a good slate of people.”

The four elected were Russell Sights, Michele Deep (the only incumbent), Robby Mills and James “Sonny” Ward. The results were 4,455 for Sights; 4,394 for Deep; 4,097 for Mills; and 3,818 for Ward. Leo Peckenpaugh was close behind at 3,744.

“They call me Landslide Ward now,” Ward joked, noting only 74 votes separated him from Peckenpaugh.

Sights had been unceremoniously dumped as city manager by Mayor Glenn Johnson and Commissioners Al Baity and Bill Womack at the beginning of 1994.

“We never expected this kind of reaction from the community,” Sights said in the Nov. 4 Gleaner. “It is truly an honor to be elected; to run first is something I didn’t expect and still can’t believe.”

“They honored me by voting for me the way they did,” Deep said. “I would have been happy with third or fourth.”

The race was the first win for Mills, who had earlier lost a commission race and a race for 1st District magistrate. “I felt more confident this time,” he said. “Everybody knew who I was this time.”

Each of the new commission members expressed confidence they would be able to work together. “Several of us disagree with each other,” Mills said. “But I think this is a group of people who can disagree and still come to consensus. I think there is a balance there.”

That confidence would be tested in May 1999 when rumblings were heard about a proposed ordinance prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in housing, employment, or public accommodations. It became known as the fairness ordinance – even to those who opposed it.

The Henderson City Commission held hearings on the fairness ordinance that drew a total of about 1,400 people and lasted four to six hours each. They were reported in The Gleaner of Aug. 31, Sept. 15, and Sept. 29, 1999. The fairness ordinance passed 3-2 with Hoffman, Ward and Deep voting for it and Mills and Sights voting against it.

Henderson's first Fairness Ordinance lasted only 18 months. James "Sonny" Ward declined to seek another term and he was replaced by Bob Hall in the next election. Hall joined Russell Sights and Robby Mills in repealing it, which was reported in The Gleaner of March 14, 2001.

The fairness ordinance was revived and reinstated in mid-June 2019. “I’m so happy people thought that was important,” Hoffman said recently. “It said that the town is still open and welcoming all people.”

Henderson was the third Kentucky city to pass a fairness ordinance. Currently, 23 Kentucky cities and Woodford County have enacted fairness ordinances, according to the Kentucky Fairness Campaign. Ashland has housing protection and Cynthiana protects against discrimination in housing and public accommodations, but neither provide employment protection.

At the time the first measure was passed only Louisville and Lexington had passed fairness ordinances. “That says something about our town – more forward thinking than a lot of small communities are,” Hoffman said recently. “It was controversial, and we had some bad things said to us … but we felt like we were doing the right thing.”

In fact, she is most proud of that and the adoption of curbside recycling, which began in Henderson the spring of 2002. “I think we’re doing something here that will truly influence the future of our community,” she said in The Gleaner of Jan. 23, 2002, when the contract with BFI Waste Services of Indiana was approved.

Some other major accomplishments that occurred during Hoffman’s administration included starting work on renovation of the riverfront; approving plans for the riverfront fountain; moving Henderson from third-class to second-class status; kicking off the downtown installation of bronze bird statues replicating paintings by John James Audubon; acquiring the former headquarters of Peabody Coal to use for a new police station and other government offices; and phasing out the controversial wheel tax.

The last two items, in particular, had troubled city administrations for years.

I was there at many of the meetings Hoffman presided over and I can testify about her commitment to listen. More than once, as my deadline crept closer, I found myself thinking, “Crack that gavel down and move this along.” But she never did. She had the patience of a proverbial saint.

“By trade I’m a schoolteacher” where she learned the value of listening, she told me recently. “There’s something about letting people have their say. They’ll go away – not a little happier – but at least they’ll have been heard. It’s always good to hear the other side.”

100 YEARS AGO

More than two years of work was finally beginning to show results toward getting the community of Smith Mills a high school, according to The Gleaner of Nov. 4, 1923.

The Smith Mills High School was built in 1925 with 12 classrooms by consolidating multiple smaller schools. It would be the county’s fourth consolidated high school, the others being in Cairo, Hebbardsville, and Spottsville. Niagara got a high school in 1926.

75 YEARS AGO

The Henderson Sportsmen’s Club held its first meeting at the courthouse and 63 members attended, according to The Gleaner of Oct. 27, 1948.

“The first project of the new group will be the leasing of a lake for use as a fishing place for members.” The club has owned a lake near Robards for years.

Also, The Gleaner of Nov. 3, 1948, reported that a $3 million bond issue to build a new power plant was approved by city voters 1,874 to 1,424.

In 1947 a similar proposal was defeated 2,226 to 1,529.

A lawsuit that held things up prevented the Station I power plant on Water Street being built until 1950-51.

50 YEARS AGO

Margaret “Tardie” Nichols, a veteran of city government, came within 123 votes of beating Mayor Bill Newman in his first reelection attempt, according to The Gleaner of Nov. 7, 1973. She had beaten him by 132 votes in the May primary election.

“I’m not depressed about it,” said Nichols. “I didn’t have an organization behind me, I didn’t have the newspaper behind me, I didn’t have a family to get out and beat the bushes for me. All I had was my friends.”

She was a city employee from 1938 to 1971. During that time, she was secretary to seven mayors, although Robert B. Posey served three terms and Hecht S. Lackey served two. Nowadays her position would more accurately be called administrative assistant.

She also was Henderson’s first sworn female police officer; she was acting desk sergeant from late 1942 to 1947, which involved dispatching officers.

Nichols outlived two husbands and died March 6, 2012, just shy of her 103rd birthday.

Readers of The Gleaner can reach Frank Boyett at YesNews42@yahoo.com.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Henderson history: City elected its first female mayor 25 years ago