If Wendell Ford is the patriarch of the Democratic Party in Kentucky, Hazel Demery is the matriarch.
This quote came from Daniel Hurt, at age 27 a veteran party activist and member of the state central committee, upon hearing of the death of Hazel Demery.
Demery died Tuesday at age 98.
“She was involved in politics for as long as anybody can remember,” said Hurt, also from Grand Rivers, a community sandwiched between Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley in western Kentucky. “You name a Democratic power player, and she campaigned for him or her. There was definitely a Hazel Demery school of politics, and I was lucky enough to be a student in that school.”
A retired nurse at Vulcan Materials in Grand Rivers, Demery preceded Hurt as Livingston County party chair. “She was chair for about 25 years, and I had the privilege of succeeding her for five years.”
Hurt said Demery introduced dozens of young western Kentuckians like him to politics. “She got me my first job in politics – volunteering for Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008.”
She dispatched him to nearby Paducah to help put up yard signs for Obama. “If it hadn’t been for her, I wouldn’t have had the privilege of doing that, and if I hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t have met [State Reps.] Mike Cherry or Gerald Watkins or any of the people who I would end up working or volunteering for.”
Added Hurt: “She started out in an era when politics was dominated by men. Women in Democratic politics today can look to Hazel Demery as an original feminist.”
Hurt went on to manage, work in, or volunteer for several Democratic campaigns for the state legislature, governor, congress, U.S. senate and president. “Democratic candidates running for president down could always count on her,” Hurt said.
Besides Hurt, other regional party chairs praised Demery’s Democratic fealty.
“She was so loyal to the Democratic party, and she took it personally,” said Ron Morgan of Paducah, who was the McCracken County chair for many years. “Any time anybody had a Democratic event, she was there. She took it personally. It wasn’t a game to her. You could depend on her being there and supporting what you were doing.”
Fellow Paducahan Jennifer Smith, current McCracken chair, said Demery was “what I’d aspire to be, not just for the party but for her community. [Demery was active in the American Red Cross and many other organizations]. She was a larger than life personality.”
Added Smith: “If we could all be as active as she was. She was just amazing – a powerhouse. Even as her body was starting to fail, she was still fighting the fight. She was heart and soul a Democrat.”
Hurt agrees. “Hazel called me and when I asked her how she was doing, she said, ‘I’m dying of cancer, but that’s okay. I still want Amy McGrath yard signs. I’ve got a couple of places to put them.’ She was a nurse and knew what she was facing, so she told me, ‘I don’t want treatment. I’ve lived a full life.’ That tells you the kind of character she had.”
David Ramey, longtime Calloway County chair, remembered Demery for her “great ability to connect with people, which is one of the reasons a lot of powerful people wanted to make sure Hazel was on their side.”
Ramey, from Murray, said he was never around Demery “when she didn’t have a smile on her face. She was always optimistic, and she never met a stranger.”
He said Demery accompanied him and his spouse, Camela, to Gov. Andy Beshear’s 2007 inauguration. “My wife had not been to a lot of political things, but Hazel sitting with us made her feel very comfortable. That’s the way she was, and why everybody loved her.
“She had that smile – that twinkle in her eye. We’ve lost some great ones, and she was one.”
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Funeral services for Hazel Demery will be at 2 p.m. (CST) Friday at the Calvert City Church of Christ, 4625 U.S. 62. Visitation will be from 11 a.m. to the funeral hour; burial will follow in Dixon Cemetery in Grand Rivers.
Donations in her memory may be made to the Hazel Demery Scholarship Fund, c/o C-Plant Federal Credit Union, 303 Mill St., Smithland, Ky. 42081.
You can read more about Hazel at the Life Tributes page created by her family.