Mickey Stubblefield giving autographs October 19, 2009 after speaking to the October meeting of the Ellis Wilson Society. A native of Mayfield, Mr. Stubblefield played baseball for the Omaha Rockets (1947), the Kansas City Monarchs (1948-49), the Nebraska State League (1950), and the Pittsburg Pirates farm team called the Mayfield Clothiers (1952).  A pitcher, he made history when he took the mound on June 26, 1952, in Mayfield’s War Memorial Stadium, to become the first African-American baseball player in the KY-IL-TN Class D Minor (Pro) League (commonly referred to as the Kitty League). Mr. Stubblefield was born February 26, 1926…

Betty Dobson portraying Maggie Steed Maggie Steed built the Metropolitan Hotel in 1909 when she was 24 years old. Maggie, a woman of “color”, was far ahead of her time, as she saw when she arrived in Paducah in 1893, the need for a hotel that would house “colored” people. Maggie’s father was a slave and when President Lincoln offered slaves a chance to fight in the Civil War effort, he promised them and their families freedom after the war.  Many colored regiments were continued after the war and Maggie arrived in Paducah in 1893 mainly due to the colored…