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Favorite Old Ad: When Harry Lee built super station on Road 80 2016-12-15 - Today: 1200 Russell Road, Columbia, KY - Photo from the collection of Mike Watson, Adair County historian. Nobody but the late Harry Lee Dohoney, easily a nominee for Wittiest Adair Countian of all times, could have gotten a not-so-soft dig at the phone company (Southern Bell at the time), than with the note in the lower left hand corner of this favorite old Adair County News ad shared with us by Adair County Historian Mike Watson. It reads: "OUR APOLOGIES TO OUR CUSTOMERS! We have been unable to get our telephone installed and we are sorry for this inconvenience. Even though we do not have a phone yet, when you call us you get the same sound as if it were ringing at our business." Of course, as the clever marketing man that Harry Lee Dohoney was, the ad was the talk of Columbia, and soon people quit saying Harry Lee was crazy to put in such a grand service station in the wilderness. But it became one of the most successful enterprises in Adair County History! Not only did his staunch supporters like Bulldog Curry and Ralph Waggener take their business to the banks of Russell Creek, but tens of thousands more made their way to buy "the best gas by far." If someone would just write a biography of Harry Lee Dohoney, this station era would make a 1,000 page volume. The ad is from the Adair County News, 13 September 1961 issue, Mr. Watson irrefutably reports. - EW Permalink | Comments?

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