Ann Ross' home is a one-woman museum dedicated to a long career in public service. Photographs, plaques, certificates, and framed newspaper articles line three walls of her spacious living room, and a glass cabinet stands in her parlor stuffed with gifts, mementos, and souvenirs. Pins, buttons, and miscellaneous political trinkets spread out over an adjacent coffee table, filling all available surface space.
That's just what's on display. In the basement, boxes and boxes are crammed full of correspondence with White House aides, campaign signs lean against the wall, and a two-foot stack of newspaper clippings waits to be sorted. "My kids have told me that anything I don't put in a scrapbook is getting thrown out," she jokes, rifling through a folder of policy outlines sent from the Reagan administration. Whether that's a real ultimatum or not, the sheer size of Ann's collection would make the scrapbooking task one of almost Herculean proportions.
But where does all this stuff come from? "They represent a part of my life that I led for 25 years, a life of politics and public life and charity work in the city," said the former councilmember, two-time mayoral candidate, and current Urban County Planning Commission member. All the items in her collection, the lapel pins from different city and state governments, the ashtrays emblazoned with logos and slogans, the shot glasses bearing the Kentucky state seal, all were gifts or tokens of thanks that Ann had held on to as signposts charting her political course over those years.
Walls of her living room are covered in dozens of photographs, which are a mix of family portraits (including a grandson she calls the future governor of Kentucky) and pictures of her with Kentucky governors and U.S. presidents. Each picture has its own story. In one photograph, Ann stands with Gov. Wallace Wilkinson. She recalled that Wilkinson would always shake her hand and call her "my favorite Republican," which flattered her-until she caught him telling the woman behind her in line the same thing. Ann laughed as she recounted the exchange. "I said to him, 'You've crushed everything within me.' "
Next to the photos of Ann with Kentucky governors-four in all, spanning nearly her entire career in politics-is a series of photos of her with members of the Reagan administration. There is a photo of Ann with then-Vice President George H.W. Bush and another showing her sitting with Reagan, Bush, and other White House officials. During Reagan's presidency, she was serving on the Urban County Council, and regularly received policy descriptions from the White House to communicate to her colleagues back home. Ann still has this correspondence filed away in the basement, as well as a few other trinkets from the Reagan White House on display in her parlor: a small transparent box full of the president's famous jelly beans that was a gift from his second inauguration, and pens and matchbooks bearing the president's name that were souvenirs from the White House.
Below one photograph of Ann dining at a White House luncheon is a framed letter from President Reagan. In it, the president apologizes for having to cancel a previous luncheon because it fell on the day after he had nearly been assassinated. Ann said her only regret from those years was having to turn down an invitation to a meal in the Rose Garden. "I could've kicked myself."
On another living room wall hangs a framed article from a 1981 issue of The Lexington Leader declaring Ann Ross to be one of the top three most influential women in Fayette County. In an era when women in Kentucky politics were a rarity, she and other female politicians had to work extra hard to be perceived as competitive candidates. "You had to be really on top of things," she said. "You had to know the issues inside and out. You couldn't have any scandal." When Ann was elected in 1977 to a council-at-large position, she was the first woman elected to a countywide office, and the first woman to be selected by the council to serve as vice-mayor. Ann said she is grateful these days that gender is no longer an issue. "I could consider myself one of the pathfinders in politics and it's been so joyous for me," she said. "It's been a blessing."
Ann Ross has had her political ups and downs. She is glad for her current role as a member of the Planning Commission, and though her bids for mayor weren't successful, she believes her campaign got a message across. What's important, she said, is that she's tried to do some good for her community, and all the things she's collected over the years serve as reminders of that good. "All of this stuff," she said, gesturing to indicate all the trinkets and mementos in her parlor, "when I was living the political life, I always felt I was doing something for the community and trying to help. I was always glad to get certificates, but it wasn't just window dressing. There was something behind it."