There is a manhole at the center of Ninth and Main streets that features images of longtime newspaper columnist Joe Dorris and two brothers, of the Mumford family, who were Hopkinsville sanitation workers in the early 1900s.
Dorris, who wrote the popular “Watching the Parade” column for the Kentucky New Era for more than 50 years, wrote a series about outhouses in the 1970s and dubbed himself the “privy editor.”
John Y. Brown Sr., standing in for his son Kentucky Gov. John Y. Brown Jr., was among several dignitaries who attended a ceremony to install the manhole cover in 1981. An inductee into the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame, Dorris covered news and sports for the New Era and had stints as the paper’s editor and publisher.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. She spent 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.
