From NKAA, Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (main entry)
Mays, Bentley Tip
(born: August 4, 1919 - died: May 23, 1994)Bentley Tip Mays was a well-respected horse trainer from Barbourville, KY. In 1934, he started working at the Minton Hickory Farm where his father, Woodson Mays, was also employed. Woodson worked at the Minton Hickory farm for 35 years. The farm was established in 1914 when T. W. Minton and his son were in the lumber business before building the Minton-Hickory horse stable in Barbourville.
Over the years, Bentley T. May's worked under several trainers, including Bob McCray who had arrived in 1924 to manage the Minton Hickory Farm stable. Mays also worked at the Ridgefield Farm in Kingston, TN; Knowlton Farm in Delaware, OH, under Walter Murphy; and the Happy Valley Farm in Danville, KY. The names of Mays' champion horses, such as Starheart's Daughter from Happy Valley, are included in May's obituary published in The National Horseman, July 1994.
Bentley Tip Mays died in 1994 in Danville, KY. He was the son of Rev. Woodson (1897-1977) and Charity J. Jones Mays, and the husband of Jewel Gregory Mays. When Bentley was six months old, he and his parents lived with his maternal grandfather, Frank Mays, in Barbourville, according to the 1920 U.S. Census. Both Bentley and his father Woodson were enumerated as saddle horse stable employees in the 1940 U.S. Census. The men were employed on the Minton Farm, according to their WWII Draft Registration Cards (Ancestry). By 1960, Bentley and his family had moved to Danville, KY, where he was employed as a trainer at Happy Valley Farm.
Sources: John Alexander, "Minton Hickory Farm, once the best, will be empty again come December," The Lexington Leader, 10/27/1970, p.2; "Deaths and Funerals: Woodson Mays," Corbin Times-Tribune, 02/25/1977, p.10; "Obituary: Bentley Tip Mays dies," The National Horseman, July 1994, p.160.
*Yvonne Giles submitted the information and sources for this entry.