Hammond, Lucy Taylor
(born: 1927 - died: 2006)In 1967, Lucy Taylor Hammond returned to Kentucky to become an extension foods and nutrition agent for the Blue Grass Area, she was a cooperative extension employee at the University of Kentucky (UK), College of Agriculture. In 1970, she was the first to be named State Coordinator of the Expanded Food and Nutrition Program, a program also housed with the UK College of Agriculture and meant to improve the quality of life for Kentucky families [source: "Extension nutrition agent named state coordinator," Lexington Herald-Leader, 03/27/1970].
Lucy T. Hammond also wrote nutrition articles for the Lexington Herald-Leader column "For Farm Homemaker," as well as other articles on diet, good health, and foods. As an extension agent, she traveled to 32 countries and ourside the United States. Her first trip to Kenya, Africa, was in 1977, and in 1980, Hammond left UK for a three year assignment in Kenya where she taught home economics at Egerton College (now Egerton University).
In 1984, Lucy T. Hammond and her husband, Robert E. Hammond (1929-1996) who was a college professor, shared their home in Versailles, KY, with Joe Kairumba, a student from Kenya. Kairumba had been a student at Egerton College when Lucy Hammond was a teacher there and her had met her husband when he visited in the summers. The couple had promised Joe Kairumba that if he could make his way to the U.S., then they would see that he got his undergraduate degree. Kairumba graduated from the University of Kentucky in May 1986. Also in 1986, Lucy T. Hammond was a U.S. delegate to the Women's Decade Conference in Kenya, and Egerton College recognized her for her years of distinguished service.
Lucy Taylor Hammond died April 3, 2006 [source: Kentucky Death Index]. She was a Kentucky native born June 16, 1927 in Junction City, KY (Boyle County). She was a 1950 graduate at Kentucky State College (now Kentucky State University), where she earned her undergraduate degree in home economics education. She did advance study at Indiana University, while at nights working on an assembly line in Bloomington to pay for her classes. [Graduate programs were not available to African Americans in Kentucky in 1950.] Lucy Taylor Hammond was the first African American student at Indiana University to be certified by the American Dietetics Association. In 1952, she completed her dietetic internship at Freedmen's Hospital in Washington, D.C. She later earned masters' degrees from Florida A&M University and the University of Louisville. She had also been an extension agent in Florida, and for 12 years prior to that she was a hospital dietitian in New York, Cincinnati, and when she initially came to Florida, Lucy Hammond was chief dietitian at the Florida A&M Hospital.
Lucy Taylor Hammond and Robert E. Hammond had one of the largest collections of stone and wood sculptures, cloths, woven hangings, and other items from Kenya. The collection was kept in seven rooms of their home in Versailles, KY. In 1987, Lucy T. Hammond and her husband established the Robert E. Hammond II Scholarship Fund at the University of Kentucky; their 21 year old son Robert died in a car accident in 1982 [source: Kentucky Death Index].
Lucy and Robert Hammond had married in 1958 and they were divorced in 1992 [source: Kentucky Divorce Index]. The year of their divorce, Lucy T. Hammond was named to the board of the Council on Higher Education by then Governor Brereton Jones [source: "Jones names new boards Wilkinson ousted," Lexington Herald-Leader, 07/01/1992, p.A1]. In 2008, Lucy Taylor Hammond was posthumously named to the UK College of Agriculture Hall of Fame [source: "Boyle women named to UK's Hall of Fame," at the Central Kentucky News website, 07/16/2008 (online)].
For more see "Recognition of African American women at the University of Kentucky," p.3; see the Lucy T. Hammond biography file in UK Special Collections, University Archives and Records Program; B. Tevis "Lucy Hammond's life is setting example," Communi-K, 09/03/1985; M. Bailey, "Determined Kentuckians work for unity," Lexington Herald-Leader, 10/06/1985; S. Malempati, "Staff member discusses Kenya life at lecture for UK Donovan Scholars," Lexington Herald-Leader, 10/16/1985; B. L. Mastin, "Fond memories of Kenya kept in house, hearts," Lexington Herald-Leader, 03/16/1986, p.F4; Robert E. Hammond's death notice, "Retired associate professor," Lexington Herald-Leader, 06/13/1996, p.C.2; and other articles in the Lexington Herald-Leader. Articles written by Lucy Taylor Hammond in the Lexington Herald-Leader include "Milk's fame claim is calcium content," 08/25/1968; "Eating habits important for our senior citizens," 11/09/1969; and "Eggs cited as nearly perfect food for man," 03/22/1970.
