A statue of Kentucky women’s suffragist Nettie Depp is coming to the state Capitol, Lieutenant Governor Jacqueline Coleman announced in a Frankfort media briefing Wednesday.
Depp was a school teacher and became the first woman elected to public office in Barren County upon her election as superintendent of schools in 1913. She worked to reform the education system in Barren County, establishing the community’s first four-year high school. The Depp statue will be unveiled in the Capitol’s west end on August 21, 2021.
The announcement comes amid ongoing debate on statues in the Capitol. A monument to Confederate President Jefferson Davis came down in June from the building’s rotunda after an 11-1 vote from the state Historic Properties Commission. Beshear clarified that the Depp statue was in the works years prior to the Davis statue removal.
Beshear also used the briefing to announce $6.4 million in CARES Act funding for the commonwealth’s public transportation agencies. Pennyrile Area Allied Services is a recipient of the allocation. The organization services Caldwell, Christian, Crittenden, Hopkins, Livingston, Lyon, Muhlenberg, Todd and Trigg counties in western Kentucky.
Beshear reported 546 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday, bringing the statewide total to 32,741. The commonwealth’s positivity rate rose to 5.51%.
One Kentuckian died as a result of the virus Wednesday, a 71-year-old woman from Logan County. Kentucky’s death toll is 752.
Find more information concerning Kentucky’s response to the coronavirus here.
