HALL OF FAMEALBERT SIDNEY ADAMS
From the beginning of
his life in Knott County, at a small
community now called Pinetop, Sid's life was
directed toward serving the public. After he
spent many years with chores on their small
farm, you could tell that he was going to be
a man on the move. He made a trip to Denver,
Colorado, in 1928, with some of his brothers
to visit and work for an uncle that lived in
Denver. Upon returning to Kentucky he spent
time with the Civilian Conservation Crop
(The 3 C'). He began working for other
people by driving trucks to haul logs,
goods, or produce or taking people to
various places around Kentucky.
Being one of 12 children of Bob and Susan King Adams, Sid
realized what it took to get along with
people as he worked, played, and attended
school with his siblings, other family, and
friends. His father taught him the ethics of
hard work and the ability to work around and
meet other people. After his training and
conditioning at home, he set out to enroll
in life's challenges. His work spanned many
different jobs over the years. Laying gas
pipelines, working in a shipyard in Newport
News, Virginia, to driving for local
merchants, were some of his early
experiences, which set him toward a
political career. During this span in his
life, he married Vinta Amburgey, daughter of
Wiley J. and Nancy Honeycutt Amburgey. To
this union was born three children, Stanley,
Rudean, and Nancy Sue.
Sid drove the school bus for the Board of Education. He carried
hundreds of children to and from school.
They all could tell a story about his day on
the school bus. He always was good to the
children, earning their respect because of
the extra mile he went to help them, and the
advise and direction they received from him.
After the bus driving days he began carrying
the mail for the U.S. Postal Service, and
remained there for eight years. All of these
jobs through out his life gave him
opportunities to meet people and hear of
their concerns about problems in our county
and state that needed attention. From these
ideas and opinions of the people, he
developed a concern to do something about
those problems. He became interested in
politics and became a candidate in the
political arena. During the sixty's and
early seventies, Sid was a candidate for
State Representative. He was very persistent
and determined to serve the people of his
area as their State Representative in
Frankfort. In 1974, he was elected to the
House of Representatives and served two
terms in that capacity. His greatest
achievement in those two terms was being a
part of the Mountain Caucus, a group of his
Mountain Colleagues that worked to return
Coal Severance Tax money back to the
counties from which coal was produced. These
monies were to help improve living
conditions for the people of those counties.
This is still being done today, and the
money is used to help improve water, sewer,
roads, schools,fire departments and various
other programs for the citizens of Knott
County. Sid was elected for a third term in
the House of representatives in 1986. After
that he retired as a candidate, but stayed
active in politics until his death in
November 1998. His love of Knott County and
its people helped him seek ways to improve
this area through the political road. His
love of politics came about because of his
concern for people and their needs. He loved
people and loved campaigning and talking to
them about ways to improve life in Knott
County.
Sid gave his life to God and spent his last years living for Him.
He devoted his life to supporting the
children and making this a better place to
live. We may forget
the name Sid Adams, but we will see results
of his footsteps here in this region for
many years. Shall we all stop for a moment
and reflect on our lives and see
if we have made improvements and an impact
on our county, as Sid Adams did during his
time spent with us.
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