Come On-A My House: Heather French Henry of The Rosemary Clooney House
by CHAD KENNERK
Image courtesy WikiCommons.
Located at 106 Riverside Drive on the banks of the Ohio River in historical Augusta, Kentucky, The Rosemary Clooney House is a non-profit foundation focused on preserving the house that Rosemary called home for 20 years, while sharing Rosemary’s legacy with fans old and new through extensive memorabilia from her life and career. The home was a sanctuary and retreat between gigs for Rosemary, who was born in nearby Maysville, Kentucky.
The museum's origins trace back to 1999 when Heather French Henry was crowned Miss America 2000 — the first Miss Kentucky to win the crown. Her second call that night was from another hometown Kentucky girl — Rosemary Clooney. Years later, following Clooney’s passing, Rosemary’s children approached Heather and her husband, former Kentucky Lt. Gov Dr. Steve Henry about purchasing the circa 1840 home. The Rosemary Clooney House officially opened in 2005 and is now a museum showcasing Clooney's costumes, including pieces and memorabilia from all her major films – The Stars Are Singing, Here Come the Girls, Red Garters and White Christmas. It’s the home of the largest collection of White Christmas memorabilia in the world, with costumes worn by Rosemary Clooney, Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Vera-Ellen, Dean Jagger, Mary Wickes, and George Chakiris.
In addition to the nearly 200 pieces in White Christmas collection, the museum houses collections dedicated to Rosemary’s film and music career. There are also collections devoted to Vera-Ellen, including a gown from Three Little Words, and a collection highlighting Rosemary’s nephew George Clooney, with screen-worn pieces from George himself, such as the overalls he wore in Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? For all of us dreaming of a white Christmas, here’s a closer look at the perennial favourite that’s touched many hearts across multiple generations.
In conversation with Rosemary Clooney House owner Heather French Henry
Film Review (FR): The journey behind the museum and the rise of the collection is a fascinating one. It really all goes back to 1999 and the moment that you were crowned Miss America.
Heather French Henry (HFH): That was a pretty pivotal year in a lot of ways, certainly. To be the first Miss Kentucky to win Miss America was phenomenal, but to know that the second phone call I was going to receive after winning Miss America would be from Rosemary Clooney was unthinkable, truly. There were a lot of wonderful, divine intervention moments at that point, when I think about my history with Miss America and what it's led to today with the multitude of projects, including The Rosemary Clooney House and that deep friendship and mentorship that she provided to me. 1999 and 2000 were a pretty remarkable couple of years.
(FR): Didn't Rosemary also sing on a Miss America album at one point?
(HFH): It's interesting that you bring that up, because just about every Miss America gets gifted this album, Miss America Presents. It has Nancy Fleming, who was our Miss America that year [in 1961], and it's this beautiful illustration of her. Rosemary Clooney is the top-charted song with “Tenderly” on that album. I have several copies and just about every Miss America gets gifted that; not in association with Rosemary Clooney. A lot of people who find this album at flea markets or in their grandmother’s attics, tend to gift them to the Rosemary Clooney House on my behalf, which is really nice. So it's really half a degree of separation. Also, Nina Clooney, Rosemary’s sister-in-law, was Miss Lexington and competed at the Miss Kentucky pageant. That's how she and Nick [Clooney] met. When we think about that correlation and relationship, I too held the title of Miss Lexington for one of my preliminary titles. Rosemary had a couple of entrance points into Miss America, and I feel like we're bringing it full circle.
(FR): It feels like providence, or certainly something in the air.
(HFH): I know. She was a wonderful human being. When she talked to me about being a small-town girl and being thrust into the 60,000 mile-an-hour carousel of the entertainment industry, she was really concerned. She offered a lot of great advice. She called me once a week, every week during that year. Then I got a chance to perform with Rosemary and Debby Boone, her daughter-in-law, back home in Maysville, [Kentucky] at the Rosemary Clooney Jazz Festival. I saw her several times in New York when she was singing, and she always dedicated the song “Sweet Kentucky Ham” to me, which is only on one of her albums called The Girl Singer. It's about a travelling salesman and he's hankering for some sweet Kentucky ham. It's just an interesting set of correlations, certainly, and my year was phenomenal. We were both from the same area; I grew up with a Clooney family, but I had just not met her yet. The Miss America connection, to me, just made it all the sweeter.
(FR): You were on Christmas in Rockefeller Center together as well.
(HFH): I'm so glad that you brought that up. I was just watching this year's lighting of the tree, and I went back and re-watched the video where I had the chance to be there to light the Rockefeller tree with Rosemary. I love the fact that we tossed it to her, and then she tossed it back up and said, “Tell the folks back home I said Merry Christmas.” We had a couple of really great connection points that year. All of my Miss America sisters have phenomenal years, but that was pretty special
(FR): What was that mentor relationship like? What were some of the things that she imparted to you?
(HFH): Her first priority to impart to me, as far as her wisdom, was to never forget where I came from. Rosemary is Kentucky's favourite daughter. She never forgot Augusta and Maysville and even Cincinnati across the pond, as we say, right there in the tri-state area. She co-starred with Vera Ellen and George Chakiris, who are both from Norwood, Ohio, so there was a lot of tri-state energy there [in White Christmas.] She always came home. She performed at the governor's mansion even before my husband and I actually got married. When he was in his first administration as lieutenant governor, she did a jazz series at the governor's mansion in Frankfort. So she wanted to make sure that being Miss America didn't send me too far away from where I came from, my roots of competing in county fairs or riding my bicycle down the small streets of Augusta – which is 1,400 people if you count the cats and the dogs. That was her first priority. Her second priority was to make sure that I was staying safe and that contractually I was paying attention to all the details in the contracts and performances.
One of the offers that she sent my way I did not take, because you're just going so fast during that year. Literally every 18 to 24 hours I was in a different city and state, either performing or speaking, so it's hard to prepare. You're preparing for the day ahead, like testifying in front of Congress and the Senate on veterans legislation. I did get a chance to perform at Carnegie Hall and several other wonderful facilities around the country, but she always asked if I wanted to borrow her charts and music. I don't know that at 24 and going 60,000 miles an hour I really understood what that meant. Of course, a few years later, you're kicking yourself and going, “Why didn't I take her up that offer?” Truly, there just wouldn't have been time to coordinate all of that, even going into the Carnegie Hall performance. I was there with Walter Cronkite and Charles Osgood, doing a narrative piece together, and then I sang. A lot of those things were orchestrated for me, so I didn't get a chance to create those moments. But I will say, if I had a chance to go back and redo something, that probably would have been a redo, certainly, for me.
All of the other pieces of information that she imparted to me were really based on the industry. And then she would just call to ask how I was, which was really great. She knew how tiring it was being in that kind of strenuous, constant activity, and having to smile and wave. By the end of the night, there you are alone in the hotel room, just like the song “Sweet Kentucky Ham” talks about, trying to make phone calls and no one's home [laughs.]
(FR): Speaking of homes, how did 106 Riverside Drive come into your life?
(HFH): The Rosemary Clooney House is a special project. It's one of those projects that has a life of its own and we're just running to keep up. Truthfully, Rosemary knew that I always wanted a home back in the Augusta and Maysville area. My parents were still in the area, as were cousins and whatnot, so when she passed away, Monsita, her eldest daughter, offered us the house for sale, and immediately we jumped on that, thinking it was actually going to be a second home. It is beautifully nestled and situated right on Riverside Drive on the Ohio River. There's only one little street that separates you from the riverbank and the beautiful Ohio River. It's just glorious. Rosemary used to love to sit at the window and watch the river and the cars go by. That was one of her favourite pastimes when she was home. I really wanted that same peaceful moment. I left an ambitious, crazy year of Miss America and went right into another equally ambitious career in state government, with my husband being Lieutenant Governor in his second administration. We hit the ground running with everything that we were doing, and I really wanted a place of peace. I knew that Louisville and Frankfort were going to be places we called home, but Augusta was always going to be something special for me. We bought the house and one thing led to the next.
I had performed in a show a month prior to buying the house, where the director wanted me in a White Christmas-esque Rosemary dress. I called my friends at Paramount and asked if they had any of Edith Head's notes or her sketches, because the VHS tape at the time did not give us tons of details construction-wise. It just didn't have the clarity offered today, certainly. They didn't have anything, but that was their ‘aha’ moment. They didn't know at the time where anything was. That's not unlike the studios at the time; a lot of studios had sold off thousands of pieces of their lots to make room in their studios, because they were still filming there. They're landlocked, no doubt, in Hollywood. When they realised they didn't have anything, I just went about it my own way. My mother, who's a professional seamstress and has worked for movie companies, actually made the dress for me. A month later, we bought the house and I called back our contact at Paramount and said, “Hey, we just bought Rosemary's house. Did you ever find anything?” They had actually started unboxing and going through closets and doing a deep dive into every dark corner they could think of at Paramount. And they actually found the “Sisters” fans. That was the first item that they loaned us for the house.
Even then, we thought this was just going to be one of those houses that is historical in nature. It's an original piece of architecture in Augusta; one of my great grandfathers founded Augusta in 1796, so there was history already there. I thought, “Oh, we'll have the house open during the holidays. We'll show this beautiful fan and we'll just have holiday parties.” Well, one thing led to the next, and then all of a sudden we have a few more pieces from the cast party scene, from Mary Wickes and Vera Ellen. We purchased Rosemary's green velvet dress and when the universe understands that you're collecting items from White Christmas, collectors come out of the woodwork. Now we have catalogued 177 pieces alone just from White Christmas. We also have other pieces from Rosemary's other four movies that she did as well – she did five in her lifetime. The house has now become one hundred percent museum. We don’t sleep there. There’s a Miss America room where we would stay when we were renovating the house, but then we also have Rosemary's bedroom just as it was when she lived there. When people come and tour, they're not just coming to tour the White Christmas collection; they're actually coming and touring her house. They're able to see other items from her movie career and her music career.
(FR): Red Garters is a wonderful movie musical. It’s great to see that you have some pieces from that.
(HFH): I am so delighted you brought up Red Garters. Again, in the universe that is the entertainment industry, it's having this wonderful resurgence. There are items that are now coming to the surface. In our 20-year history, it's been feast or famine bringing these collections back together. They've travelled to the four corners of the earth. We've gotten items from Scotland, Australia and Cleveland, Ohio. You never know where these items are going to come from.
With Red Garters, there seems to be a lot that's populating to the surface, which is great, because for years, we only had a few pieces in that collection, and now we've gone from a few to probably ten. Even items like press passes, advertisements and sheet music, I had not really seen before in my investigative searching. Things like that are coming up to the surface. Edith Head designed the costumes for Red Garters as well. So not only is it important for Rosemary, but for the cinematic history of costume design and its evolution. Edith Head, who is arguably the most important costume designer in history, that's an important part of her collection as well. I love the music; it's the quirkiest musical comedy musical, but it's wonderful.
(FR): As we’re talking about things being separated and coming back together, the “Sisters” dresses were separated for a very long time, and now they're finally reunited.
(HFH): The “Sisters” dresses have had an interesting journey. For most people, when they come into the museum, that’s their first question: “How did you find these? How did you bring them back together?” We have a lot of friends who help and keep their tentacles out in the world and we do searches every single day, because you just never know when things are going to pop up. We connected with a collector in Texas who had Vera Ellen’s “Sisters” dress, and then we actually found Rosemary's dress on eBay under ‘Vintage 50s Party Dress.’ It was still not inexpensive, but not as expensive as Vera Ellen's.
The interesting thing about their journey is the condition in which they arrive. Vera's had possibly been used for another movie, although it must not have been an extraordinary movie, because we can't find where it has been used, but it had been cut off into a strapless sweetheart neckline dress. So it was missing, literally its sleeves, chest and neck area, but the skirt was in great condition. With Rosemary's, the top was in great condition, but was quite faded. It had been in a store window. The skirt was devastated. There were pieces missing; as far as a whole layer, some of the sequins were missing [too.] They both had their issues. When we talk about curating collections, we often have to think about preservation. Are we going to be able to restore pieces to their former glory, or as close as you can get them to their former glory, or are you just going to preserve them in the state that they came to you in?
Now for Red Garters, we have a dress of Rosemary’s that probably won't be able to be restored. It's a natural silk, and it's just sort of melting with time. We had to take it off of a mannequin and place it back in our archives. The “Sisters” dresses were in a condition and state that they could be restored to a degree. We sent those to Paramount and Betsey Potter, who is a costume designer for Paramount and she is phenomenal. She actually took about three years in total to restore both of the dresses. She did an enormous amount of work on Rosemary’s skirt. Then for Vera Ellen, she hand-crocheted the lace to match the original lace, dyed it and aged it to match. When you see them in person, you will not be able to tell that we had to recreate the sleeves and the chest to match the bodice. The bodice is original, but she did such an amazing job restoring [the dress.] Three years in total of restoration work. eBay and Texas. The journey of those two pieces is pretty significant.
(FR): How fantastic that you had Paramount actually involved in restoring them.
(HFH): Paramount has been a wonderful partner, and the people within Paramount; like Betsey, who is very passionate about the preservation of cinematic history, and Randall Thropp and others who have been able to really understand the true mission. It's hard for the studios; the studios over the past few decades have lost an enormous amount of treasures, but they too are now on board with trying to regain some of their former historical items. In fact, Randall has been able to collect some of that costume preservation history within Paramount, he is in charge of those collections there, and we've visited him and seen the warehouse that they've been able to create and some of the items they've been able to save. Here Come the Girls, which Rosemary did with Arlene Dahl, Tony Martin and Bob Hope, they actually have been able to find several pieces from that movie, and we too have several pieces that we've been able to collect from private collectors. So it's just nice to know that there is a partner in the studio space that understands not just the monetary worth of these pieces, but the nostalgic worth of these pieces.
(FR): You brought some pieces with you today. I'd love to hear more about them.
(HFH): When we talk about movies and collections, a lot of people only talk about the stars and those who are in the foreground of the movie, but you also have to think about the background. What's going on back there? The chorus people, the extras – where are those costumes? In one of the scenes that we call the “Mandy” scene, where they're singing the song “Mandy.” Vera Ellen is in this glorious white beaded costume that has the white train, and she has on red gloves. We actually have that costume at the Rosemary Clooney House, but behind her are a significant number of dancers and extras.
For many years, we only had one of the chorus girl costumes, and it came to us from a collector overseas. That costume comprises of a bodysuit, a bustle that goes on the back, a headpiece and gloves. So there are four pieces within that costume. We actually now have pieces from all of those chorus girls, but for years we only had one, and it was composed of two different chorus girls, Betty Utey and Helen McAllister. With this particular set, the Paramount tags inside of it are so vague that we're not quite sure which chorus girls they belong to, but we do know that three of the costumes that are like this were used in the Elvis Presley movie Roustabout, so they were repurposed to a degree. This [chorus girl costume] is our newest acquisition and we've grown from one to seven of these pieces. We have a few more that we’d like to try to get, but they've all come from different places, which is crazy. In someone's attic or in a warehouse in L.A. or some collection around the world, they've got the additional pieces.
When you watch White Christmas, there's another piece from Holiday Inn that actually is seen over 12 times in the background of the movie. It's not worn, but it's used as a prop. It was a costume from the “Star Spangled Rhythm” celebration number in the 1942 hit Holiday Inn, [the film] which “White Christmas” was written for. We actually have been able to find one of those through Bonhams. There are auction houses that we kind of rotate through: Bonhams, Heritage Auctions, and Julien's Auctions as well, that we continually stay on top of. When you're watching White Christmas this year, look in the background for these chorus girl costumes or the chorus guys. We've got some of the green tuxes that are also in this scene that George Chakiris would have worn that come from people like Dick Nordt or John Brascia, who was the lead dancer and we've got his light green tux. Look in the background at how many dozens of costumes are just filling the space. You have to ask yourself, “Where are those?” That's what my job is – to find those.
(FR): You've had some incredible visitors come to the house, including George Chakiris. What was that moment like for you?
(HFH): George Chakiris was celebrating the 50th anniversary of winning his Academy Award for West Side Story, and we capitalised on him wanting to tour the country for that. We brought him to the Rosemary Clooney House so that he could help us dedicate his costume, his pants and his top, from the “Love You Didn't Do Right By Me” number. We were able to find it through the Western Costume Company, which is one of the largest suppliers, especially in the old Hollywood days. They literally have racks and racks and racks of costumes just hanging there. There was an intern that contacted us and let us know that she thought she found something of George Chakiris’. After a few years of wheeling and dealing — sometimes it takes convincing people that these costumes are going to wind up in a good space where they're going to be well taken care of — we were able to get that costume from Western Costume Company and it lives with the White Christmas collection.
We convinced George, who happened to be best friends with Lee Meriwether, one of my Miss America sisters, who was the original Catwoman, [to come.] They travelled together to the Rosemary Clooney house. We took them to Cincinnati and Norwood, so he could see where he grew up. We did a special presentation with Norwood High School, where he got a chance to do a Q&A with students and the public. It was lovely and then the night ended with him being the Grand Marshal of the White Christmas parade in Augusta, Kentucky, and with a special dinner and another Q&A with Nick Clooney. What a special moment to be able to bring them all together again. George is phenomenal. He's fit, he's incredibly handsome, and what a charmer. We loved having him at the Rosemary Clooney House.
(FR): You do have some things that visitors might not get to see because they're either being rotated out, are in the archives, or items may be away on tour as well.
(HFH): The Rosemary Clooney house is a house museum, so it is just that; it is a little landlocked. We're not able to showcase all 177 pieces of the White Christmas collection or all the other pieces of the other costume collections as well. When we travel the White Christmas collection around the country during the holiday season, usually from November through February, we travel to larger museums who can reimagine the collection in a larger capacity. In Greenville, South Carolina, the Upcountry History Museum has the collection for this holiday season. They have the original horse-drawn sleigh that we were able to get from the movie, which came from Northwest, I think it was Washington state. That was a story in and of itself, how we got that. They traversed it across the country and we met in a parking lot of a restaurant. We had to transition it from one trailer to the next. It's not a very glamorous life in the collection of all of these items [laughs]. We're able, through larger museums, to share with people more of the complete collection. There are a couple of the White Christmas chorus girl costumes that are currently undergoing some restoration; one of them may not make it out into public.
When you think about curation and you think about preservation, you have to be really careful with the elements and the environment that they're in. We have eight of the Columbia Inn chairs in total that we were able to get from the Robert Alton estate. He was the choreographer for White Christmas. His son Bob Hart, who is still alive, is a unique individual and was his dad's assistant on the set. We were able to get a few items from that collection, including the chairs. The paint on those chairs is delicate. Where we are in Augusta, we are in a humid environment. We're right on the river. We have to run dehumidifiers 24/7 in many of the rooms of the house. It's just part of the challenge that we have. The chairs do well in that environment because of that humidity. However, when we travelled to the Oshkosh Public Museum a few years ago for the holiday season, within a couple of days we got this frantic call from their curator. She said, “Oh my goodness, the paint is chipping off. It's just sort of falling off onto the floor.” What had happened was we moved them from a humid environment into a dry environment. So there were provisions that had to take place then and now we know going forward that we have to ask very specific questions about the environment that the items are going to be in.
We know that we always partner with professional museums that have LED lighting mechanisms in place and all of the normal things that are standards for museums, but we also have to ask, “What's the humidity in your environment like?” Those are just parts of the checklists. Are these going to be able to be in certain atmospheres moving forward? Are we going to be able to show all eight chairs? Probably not. We'll probably hold a few back and maybe only travel two chairs in the future. There's a methodical explanation and thought process when you talk about travelling and showcasing. These pieces are 70 years old. They're in great condition, but first, do no harm, right?
(FR): It's great to hear some of that behind the scenes, because folks coming into the museum might not necessarily understand or realise how much goes into curating, preserving and, as you're touring these pieces, ensuring that they're going to be taken care of for future generations to be able to view and enjoy.
(HFH): I love that; it is for future generations. We love the nostalgia of people who come in who may remember when the movie came out, but it's been passed down generationally now. When the collection travels to larger museums, we always tell them to be prepared for the emotional outpouring that you're going to see when people visit and see this collection. At first they're always like, “Oh, we know people will love it. It's Christmas time.” Then we usually get a phone call or an email from the head of the museum going, “I had no idea how emotional people would get when they saw the White Christmas collection.” This is something that grandparents have bestowed upon their children, their grandchildren. It's a multi-generational experience.
Even though it's usually streaming somewhere around the universe 24/7, people have a thought process too. “I never watch White Christmas until the evening of Thanksgiving,” or “We have a White Christmas party every year.” They have a thing about this movie and, for future generations, I don't want us to lose that. I've passed it on to my daughters and I want my daughters to pass it on to their children or their friends and family. We're seeing this nice resurgence right of White Christmas as it's celebrated for its 70th anniversary, but in the future, we want to make sure that we're doing our part to ensure that that legacy lives on.
(FR): Through this journey with Rosemary – putting this whole collection together and your mentorship – where do you see her legacy today?
(HFH): For me, this is a payback for all the wonderful pieces of advice that she gave me and the wonderful friendship that we were able to build in a very short amount of time. I was devastated when she passed away, because I really wanted to have more time with her after building such a friendship. There was so much I wanted to experience with her; plans that we had made to do other shows possibly together in the future. So for me, this is a way, again, like White Christmas, to make sure people don't forget. Not only her music and her movies, but here in Kentucky, for all that she represented.
Sometimes it's hard to be celebrated in your own hometown, because people knew you growing up, so you're just the same old Rosemary, the same old Heather, but around the world Rosemary is a rock star. People come to the house from overseas and they literally are in tears because Rosemary is their favourite singer, or they know her from White Christmas and it's that character that just lives on for them. Rosemary is an international star and I want to make sure that glitter doesn't fade for her. She had an iconic voice that transcended time and generations. I'm proud that when my girls, if we're out somewhere and they hear a song like “Tenderly” come on, they know her voice immediately. I don't want her to be forgotten. She's too important of a human. She's too important of a Kentuckian and too important of a friend. That is my desire, for her life and legacy to continue to be celebrated and to be remembered. If she were alive – first Rosemary would chastise me for spending time on her. She was funny that way. Even her tombstone at her gravesite is small. She didn't like opulence. But let me just tell you, I think she would quietly really love it.
(FR): You've spent your career focused on veterans affairs. What is Operation Waverly and how is that campaign supporting veterans?
(HFH): I'm so delighted you brought up Operation Waverly. There are three things that people celebrate White Christmas for. Either they love the music, which is phenomenal, or they love the costumes, or they recognise and love that it's a military Christmas movie. It is one of our only Christmas movies that is entrenched in the military. I'm dumbfounded when people don't realise that until I bring it up. It starts in World War II and the whole premise of the movie is to honour the sacrifice and service of General Waverly. For years I have been wanting to connect a veteran-specific project to White Christmas, because that was my platform as Miss America. I was Commissioner of Veterans Affairs here in Kentucky, so I always want to bring something veteran related into every project that I do. It's probably annoying, but that's my thing.
I was re-watching White Christmas for the six millionth time and when Bing Crosby is on the Ed Harrison television show, he says, “Let Operation Waverly commence.” It was my epiphany moment. I went, “Are you kidding me? I’ve been watching this movie for so long and I've just now realised that he gave it to me.” With every museum that hosts the White Christmas collection, we now partner them with a local veteran service organisation or veteran-related project where they can utilise the popularity of the exhibit to either raise funds or, in a lot of cases, raise product. The very first year we did this was when Upcountry History Museum in Greenville, South Carolina hosted it for the first time during the pandemic, which was an extraordinarily hard year, but it was wildly successful. We partnered them with a homeless veteran organisation called Fellow Countrymen. We were able to talk about the mission of that particular organisation through every media outlet. It was largely unknown to people within that area that there was a homeless veteran rehabilitation project, like Fellow Countrymen, so awareness was a great part of our success there. They also had products that they needed, so we were able to set up a box right inside the door of the Upcountry History Museum.
When people came to view the collection, we encouraged them to go on the website and look at some of our highlighted products; like socks, undergarments, toiletries, and to bring and drop those [items] off. It was wildly popular and I just cannot even tell you how many times they had to keep redelivering loads of boxes to that particular organisation. We're really proud that we're leaving a lasting legacy. I want to make sure that this isn't just something that's glorifying the collection and yesteryear, but it's actually paying it forward. Being able to connect people to veterans locally means that after this collection leaves those institutions, you've built a bridge that will last forever within that community.
Visit the official site of The Rosemary Clooney House
HEATHER FRENCH HENRY has been a local, state and national advocate for military veterans and their families for over 20 years. She has served both Governor Beshear and Governor Bevin as the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Veterans Affairs, serving over 300,000 veterans in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. During her year of service as Miss America 2000, Heather worked in the halls of Congress, held strategic meetings with the White House, and visited veterans in hospitals, homeless shelters and veteran service organizations across the nation. Heather graduated from the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art & Planning. She is married to Dr. Stephen L. Henry – former Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky. Together, the Henry’s founded the Kentucky Prostate Cancer Coalition, which provide free prostate cancer screenings at the KY State Fair. They established the Rosemary Clooney Museum in Augusta, Kentucky, featuring the famous White Christmas collection. In addition, Heather assists with the Future Fund Land Trust in its effort to save Floyd’s Fork in Jefferson and Bullitt Counties. She owns and operates Rose Hill Boutique and is a contributor to La Fille Magazine.
