West Kentucky Community & Technical College

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Visit to WKCTC's Carson Hall Brings Back Sweet Memories

Paducah, KY (06/27/2018) — On June 26, John Sterling Hester and his daughter Priscilla Hester Solomon visited West Kentucky Community and Technical College's Carson Hall, the former Carson home where Mr. Hester and his wife Carolyn Carson Hester were married in 1955.

Mr. Hester, who now lives in Charleston, South Carolina, is visiting his daughter Priscilla, who lives near Louisville. They made the emotional trip together to Paducah to see again the home where he and his wife began their married life together. He and Carolyn Carson Hester were married for 54 years before her passing in 2009. She had grown up in the Carson home with her father William Miller Carson, her mother Macon Gleaves Carson and her sister Ann.

William Carson sold the home to the former Paducah Junior College in 1961. The home was named Carson Hall in appreciation of his contribution to PJC's move from the downtown Paducah location to its permanent home on Alben Barkley Drive as well as in memory of Paducah Junior College (PJC) Board of Trustee Luther F. Carson. Founded as a private school in 1932, PJC became a municipal college in 1936 and after completing the move to Alben Barkley Drive in 1967, PJC joined the University of Kentucky's Community College System and became Paducah Community College. In 2003, PCC and West Kentucky Technical College were combined to form today's WKCTC. PJC, Inc. now serves as the foundation for WKCTC.

More interesting details about the Carson family, Carson Hall and the college's history can be found in WKCTC's Marketing Director Janett Blythe's book Upward Stride. To purchase this book visit westkentucky.kctcs.edu/wkctc_legacy/about/history/upward_stride.aspx.

During his visit, Mr. Hester looked at his wife's wedding photo from his complimentary copy of Upward Stride and remembered her father escorting her down the Carson home staircase on that special day in 1955. As he stood on that same staircase with his daughter in Carson Hall, he said with beaming pride, "Look at that, look at that. That was the smartest woman I've ever known."

Media Attachments

John Sterling Hester, who was married to Carolyn Carson for 54 years, reminisces with his daughter at WKCTC’s Carson Hall on June 26.

William Carson escorts his daughter Carolyn Carson down the Carson home staircase for 1955 wedding to John Sterling Hester.

1955 wedding of Carolyn Carson and John Sterling Hester in Carson home.

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