Featherston/2nd wife Lucy Elmore. Carolus Featherston - s/o Charles
Featherston/
Jean Wright - Branch #1).
(JFH: The source for the following article is not noted.)
Featherston, Robert Edgar - Public Relations and Organization Consultant
- was born in Lexington on November 19, 1908, the son of Robert Thompson and
Margaret Orleana Downing Featherston. Mr. Featherston. whose ancestors came
to Kentucky in 1777, is a direct descendant of Daniel Boone's sister, Mary.
He is married to Eleanor Carolyn Arnett Featherston and is the father of four
sons: Robert, R. Edgar, Daniel Boone and E. Lancelot Featherston.
A graduate of Lexington Senior High School, he was educated at the
University of Kentucky, College of Engineering, where he was undefeated light
heavy-weight boxing champion and member of the football squad. He was boxing
referee of U.K. and Kentucky Golden Gloves Tournaments, the Southeastern
Conference and Kentucky Derby Eve Matches.
After college, he was one of the founders of Central Kentucky Hospital
Service, a small insurance company. He was elevated to the Presidency and
served until the company's merger with Blue Cross. He became Membership
Secretary for the Lexington Chamber of Commerce, substantially increasing the
Chamber's membership and enabling it to operate on the largest budget in its
history. For this, in part, he received the "Goodwill Club Award", annually
awarded to the citizen creating the most goodwill in the community.
He is past President of both the Lexington and the Kentucky Junior
Chambers of Commerce and was named the "Outstanding Local Junior President in
Kentucky" and also "Kentucky's Outstanding Jaycee". He was twice a Director
of the United States Junior Chamber of Commerce.
Mr. Featherston served in the United States Marine Corps in the South
Pacific during World War II. He qualified as a Rifle Sharpshooter and in 1945
participated in the occupation of Sasebo, Kyushu, Japan. Prior to joining the
Corps, he was Public Relations Director of the Kentucky Tax Research
Association with offices in Louisville, Kentucky.
Upon returning to civilian life, he assisted in founding the Kentucky
Chamber of Commerce and served as first Executive Secretary, launching a
program to bring out-of-state industry into Kentucky and to attract tourists.
Having long desired to become a professional public relations consultant,
he joined The Fred Eldean Organization, New York City, when it was awarded the
American Petroleum Institute account. As account executive, he set up and
conducted the highly successful Oil Information Committee program in the Rocky
Mountain and Kansas-Oklahoma districts, with office in Denver, Colorado, then
in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Mr. Featherston served as Regional Director for the American Heritage
Foundation, organizing, directing and co-ordinating the activities of the
Crusade for Freedom, domestic information and fund-raising arm of the National
Committee for a Free Europe, in Kansas. Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Arkansas,
Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee.
cont.