Southern Indiana Living - Jan/Feb 2024

Salem’s Fashion Designer Wende Cudmore 

Southern 

Indiana 

Timeless 

Treasures 

@ Corydon’s 

Capitol Jewelers 

Jan / Feb 2024 

Living 

A Full Circle Journey 

Orleans native returns home

Celebrate the moments 

that matter most. 

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we’ve spent the past 45 years empowering patients and families to create more moments with 

the ones they love. Our expert team can provide the care and support you need to enhance 

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2 • Jan/Feb 2024 • Southern Indiana Living

Southern Indiana Living • Jan/Feb 2024 • 3

Valentine’s 

Sale! 

2/11-2/14 

shopcapitoljewelers.com 

812-738-3853 

101 E. Chestnut St. 

Corydon, IN 47112 





JAN / FEB 2024 

VOL. 17, ISSUE 1 

PUBLISHER | 

Karen Hanger 

karen@silivingmag.com 

LAYOUT & DESIGN | 

Christy Byerly 

christy@silivingmag.com 

COPY EDITOR | 

Jennifer Cash 

COPY EDITOR | 

Sara Combs 

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karen@silivingmag.com 

ON THE COVER: 

Capitol Jewelers in Corydon, 

IN // Photo by Michelle 

Hockman 

12 

22 

Featured Stories 

12 | BEAUTIFUL & LOCAL 

Capitol Jewelers in Corydon, Indiana 

16 | THE BEAUTY OF WOOD 

Artist Rob Roby 

18 | TEXTILE ART & FASHION DESIGN 

Salem artist Wende Cudmore 

22 | A FULL CIRCLE JOURNEY 

Orleans native returns hometown 

Southern Indiana Living 

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024 

Check out more 

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at www.silivingmag.com 

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published bimonthly by SIL 

Publishing Co. LLC, P.O. Box 

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Southern Indiana Living or its 

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LLC. 

19 

In Every Issue 

7 | FLASHBACK 

A Cold Winter’s Day, Corydon, IN, 1920 

8 | A WALK IN THE GARDEN 

Remembering a Special Pet 

11 | A NOTE TO BABY BOOMERS 

Money Talks 

27 | REAL LIFE NUTRITION 

Practice Eating Mindfully 

28 | EVERYDAY ADVENTURES 

The 11th Hour Golfer 


Corydon's coffee 

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a decade 

We invite you to come celebrate this 

milestone with us on February 8-10, 

2024 for anniversary drink specials, prize 

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2014 

110 E. Chestnut St 

Corydon, IN 

812-736-0032 

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Sun: 8a - 2p 


Flashback Photo 

A Cold Winter’s Day 

Corydon, Indiana 

ca. 1920 

// Photo courtesy of the Frederick Porter Griffin Center, Harrison County Public Library 

Ice and snow covered everything in sight in the snapshot of the LNA&C railroad bridge over Indian Creek near Corydon, 

Indiana. According to library records, the LNA&C was built in 1883 to connect Corydon with the St. Louis Railroad 

line, about 7 miles north of Corydon. Corydon passengers traveling to New Albany or Louisville had to switch trains at 

the nearby junction and catch a Southern line in order to reach their destination. 

Information on the LNA&C railroad can be found here: cdm17251.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p17251coll21/ 

id/70 


A Walk in the Garden with Bob Hill 

Remembering a Special Pet 

CHARLESTOWN – Tommy 

the 45-Pound Snapping 

Turtle passed away peacefully 

Aug. 15, 2023, at age 

29 after a very interesting life that 

included a lot of travel, at least for a 

snapping turtle. 

It was a journey that began in 

or near Ozawkie, Kansas, 29 years 

ago when one Keith Kimmel, age 

20, somehow saw Tommy in the 

middle of a very busy road trying 

to get to the other side. 

There is a joke in there somewhere. 

Perhaps involving chickens. 

But chickens can always cross 

a road faster than snapping turtles. 

Keith Kimmel, a born lover of animals 

of any description, who grew 

up in a family that forever collected 

pets, knew that. So, he stopped the 

car and picked up Tommy. 

“He was so small he fit into a 

McDonald’s cup,” he said. 

Hold that thought. 

Truth be told, he actually 

picked up two snapping turtles 

from the middle of that road that 

day, but he kept the smaller one and 

took the bigger one to a place more 

safe than a busy highway and let it 

go. You can’t be taught that kind of 

caring; you have to be born with it. 

Mourners who knew Tommy 

the Turtle felt the need to offer a few 

general facts about the creatures. 

Snapping turtles have been around 

virtually unchanged for 90 million 

years. By comparison, dinosaurs 

checked out in a mass extinction 

only 65 million years ago. 

Their survival is a bit of a 

miracle. A mama turtle will lay 20 

to 40 eggs in a batch, of which experts 

say only 5% will hatch and 

maybe 1% survive. Then the survivor 

might have to test his highway 

crossing skills. 

Snapping turtles can grow to 

220 pounds — way bigger than a 

McDonald’s cup — and live from 

50 to 100 years. They can cross a 

highway at roughly 2.4 miles an 

hour, giving Keith plenty of time to 

park his car and attend to the rescue. 

They have no teeth but can and 

will eat almost anything. Mostly 

hunting at night, they crush and devour 

food with powerful, beak-like 

jaws. No dentists required. They 

8 • Jan/Feb 2024 • Southern Indiana Living 

can hold their breath for months at 

a time, often hibernating all winter 

buried in mud under sheets 

of ice. Oddly enough, experts say 

they also have been known to hiss, 

whistle, bark, grunt, growl, squeak, 

chirp, cluck and quack. People actually 

keep track of that stuff. 

Their reputation, however, 

does proceed them. They are not 

cuddly creatures. They just look 

hunkering, threatening. Human 

fingers have been shortened by 

these creatures. But they are also 

willing to live and let live — or at 

least grip — if left alone. 

One reason they are so 

grumpy is they are not capable of 

fully pulling themselves back into 

their shells. This makes them more 

defensive than your average turtle. 

Even willing to snap. 

Keith Kimmel knew some of 

this 29 years ago, but not all. He 

just saw a very small and vulnerable 

creature in the middle of a 

busy road humping along at about 

2.4 miles an hour. And he was only 

near Ozawkie in the first place because 

his would-be wife, Angie 

Cornelison, lived near there. And 

his mom wouldn’t let him raise a 

snapping turtle when he was growing 

up because she knew they were 

people-biters. 

So, this whole thing was supposed 

to happen. Tommy was a 

keeper for all the right reasons. 

And Keith had an empty 10-gallon 

aquarium just made for a snapping 

turtle. He fed it pulverized beef kidneys 

from a nearby slaughterhouse, 

and other such meaty stuff. 

Keith wanted to be a teacher. 

At 20, his college path included 

Hutchinson Community College 

in, go figure, Hutchinson, Kansas, 

and then to Kansas State University 

in Manhattan for a year. Then 

Washburn University in Topeka. 

By then he had married Angie, 

and Tommy had graduated to 

a 20-gallon aquarium, where he 

was joined by his partner, Timmy 

the Tortoise, who was purchased 

in a pet store. That aquarium soon 

wasn’t big enough. The creatures 

became prone to climbing out, 

knocking things over and wandering 

around the apartment, which 

had three rooms and a bathroom to 

be shared with the guy across the 

hall. 

Tommy’s communication 

skills were not the best. Keith 

wasn’t ever even sure what Tommy 

thought of him. They just bonded 

the best they could; each a constant 

presence in the other’s lives. 

“Tommy was more friend than 

pet,” Keith explained. “He was my 

buddy.” 

Angie liked him best when he 

was little. 

After graduating from Washburn, 

Keith taught school in Topeka 

for a year. Keith would take Tommy 

to class. His students loved him. 

They were somewhat up close and 

personal with a snapping turtle. A 

living, slow-moving hunk of world 

history. A creature unchanged for 

90 million years. 

By then Tommy was pushing 

40 pounds and had outgrown his 

75-gallon aquarium. The next home 

was 4 feet tall and 4-by-5 feet wide 

where he lived on a diet of, among 

other things, goldfish and any mice 

caught around the house. He and 

Timmy had separate quarters. 

In 2003, Keith, Angie and his 

pets moved to Indiana, where he 

took a job teaching special education 

classes at Jeffersonville High 

School. He now teaches fifth, sixth 

and seventh grade at New Washington 

where Tommy, up to 45 pounds 

under a 16-inch shell, would occasionally 

entertain them just being

Tommy. Until Covid all but stopped 

those visits, some classes included 

both Timmy — now 50 pounds — 

and Tommy. 

Tommy died on Aug. 15 after 

a long and heroic struggle with 

some sort of moss-produced infection. 

Survivors were hundreds, if 

not thousands of grade-school kids, 

including one former student Keith 

recently met at a Texas Roadhouse 

who asked him, “Hey, Mr. Kimmel, 

what’s going on? Do you still have 

those turtles?” 

So, Tommy, and Keith, and, 

OK, Timmy, made a difference. 

Tommy was buried in the 

Kimmel Family Cemetery in the 

backyard alongside of Timmy, who 

died in April 2022, and two family 

dogs. The words next to Tommy’s 

gravestone were “A Good Turtle!” 

Keith Kimmel performed the service. 

• 

About the Author 

Former Courier-Journal 

columnist Bob Hill enjoys 

gardening, good fun, good 

friends and the life he and 

his wife, Janet. 

Snapping turtles can 

grow to 220 pounds 

— way bigger than a 

McDonald’s cup — and 

live from 50 to 100 

years. They can cross a 

highway at roughly 2.4 

miles an hour, giving 

Keith plenty of time to 

park his car and attend 

to the rescue. 

They have no teeth but 

can and will eat almost 

anything. Mostly 

hunting at night, they 

crush and devour food 

with powerful, beaklike 

jaws. No dentists 

required. 

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Money Talks 

M 

wife and I meet occasionally 

with money 

managers. People with 

money do that. 

We do it, too. 

We must meet some definition 

of wealthy, just not ours. They treat 

us nicely, these managers. Would 

they if we had to scrape together 

enough for the next cable bill? 

Okay, bad example. Nobody 

can afford the cable bill. 

We do pay it, though, like addicts. 

We survive life’s routine financial 

punches plus those invariable 

haymakers. We are not rich, 

surely not. We are lucky, frugal, a 

bit cheap, not extravagant, easily 

pleased. So our debt is next to nothing. 

Our nest egg apparently is next 

to something. 

Otherwise we would have 

no choice but to manage our own 

money. Wonder if God passes along 

stock tips? 

Most Americans doubt they 

will be wealthy, whatever the magic 

number. To a majority, wealth at 

least allows not to freak out when 

the car needs tires or if the roof 

leaks. Financial security is the common 

goal, elusive to reach. 

Otherwise really, really 

wealthy people would not be so 

ruthlessly determined to become 

really, really, really wealthy people. 

My wife and I found ourselves 

in Houston on a Sunday morning 

with no clue, no bearings. Our default 

plan was breakfast in the hotel 

restaurant. 

Sixty-six dollars later, we were 

good until lunch. 

That’s a pricey breakfast in 

my world. That’s a pricey week of 

breakfasts. We coped. Our money 

managers encourage more such 

treats, not fewer. Update the house, 

travel still more. We are able, they 

insist. 

Maybe, but are we ready and 

willing? 

A lawn mower repairman told 

me how close to the fiscal cliff his 

family stays. It pays what it can, 

when it can, to no one’s satisfaction. 

Bill collectors are as much in his 

life as are friends and neighbors. A 

woman in front of me in line to pay 

property taxes was pulling $1 bills 

from her purse, frantic to keep her 

place out of a tax sale. 

Like you, I know poor people 

wealthy in ways that likewise matter. 

Nonetheless, I feel blessed not 

to realize how overwhelming despair 

feels. Settling for $60 sneakers 

instead of $100 ones does not count. 

I like money, like earning it to 

this day. I didn’t make the cut recently 

to serve on a jury. I was sent 

a $30 consolation prize for having 

shown up. 

I still get a kick out of any payday. 

In junior high, I took slick dime 

store ads door-to-door for $10 per 

issue. In high school, I worked the 

admission gate at the public swimming 

pool. In college, I covered 

ball games and any-and-all else for 

newspapers. I earned ample beer 

money, though I much preferred 

the money to beer. 

Still do. 

If I like money too much and 

worry about it too much, I come by 

it genetically. My parents, too, were 

savers, not spenders. Their annual 

budgeted-to-the-penny splurge to 

Myrtle Beach was the exception, 

not the rule. My father felt like a 

failure the first time he didn’t pay 

cash for a car. 

Dad had a friend who would 

sneak him into the movie theater 

he managed. Another pal supplied 

endless books of matches for Dad’s 

constant cigars. The sofa could last 

another year or two, right? Doesn’t 

so-and-so know so-and-so with 

freebie Cincinnati Reds tickets? 

How much money is enough? 

The most fortunate among us may 

find out. My family owns no boat 

or cozy cabin near a lake. Our cars 

are not worthy of a second look. 

Our wardrobes are available at any 

outlet mall or at Sam’s Club. 

Five dollar cookies or cups 

of coffee strike me as crazy indulgences. 

At what point may a dozen 

Krispy Kreme glazed doughnuts 

become out of reach? Soon, it seems. 

So that’s me, the kind of choices 

I make, tending to say no as often 

as yes. Why? The future looks 

expensive and I count on being as 

A Note to Baby Boomers 

ready as possible. I may not change, 

but the stress on the bottom line 

does and will. My wife and I figure 

health care to cost more and more, 

for instance. Holler if you spot 

BOGO deals for new knees or hips. 

We expect cars and appliances 

to wear out as we do. We assume no 

monthly bill will go down and that 

the mattress only gets lumpier. 

Plus we plan to leave inheritance 

like we were left it. 

OK, we will continue to travel, 

and travel is always a good deal 

regardless of $66 breakfasts. Then 

again, chances are my wife and I 

will die never having left the United 

States. There was a time I would 

have agreed that is a shame. 

I am over it. I can go feel out of 

place in Louisville. 

Dad had a friend who would sneak him into the 

movie theater he managed. Another pal supplied 

endless books of matches for Dad’s constant 

cigars. The sofa could last another year or two, 

right? Doesn’t so-and-so know so-and-so with 

freebie Cincinnati Reds tickets? 

I did not expect to be all that 

happy at 70. I am. It helps to have 

enough money to be managed. But 

so does staying active and decently 

fit, making time for friends old and 

new, unapologetically slipping into 

bed by 10. Experts claim that living 

long is more about behavior than 

about genes. I pray that is correct. 

My genes are not of much 

comfort. 

Should a money manager contact 

you, join me in resisting feeling 

smug. I do hope that the resurgent 

feistiness of labor leads to the longoverdue 

revival of a thriving middle 

class. 

Then more of you may have 

enough money to be managed. You, 

too, can join the club of wealthy. 

You, too, would own a portfolio. 

And you, too, can try to decide 

if wealth is more an attitude than a 

bank balance. • 

After 25 years, Dale Moss 

retired as Indiana columnist 

for The Courier-Journal. He 

now writes weekly for the 

News and Tribune. Dale and 

his wife Jean live in Jeffersonville 

in a house that has been 

in his family since the Civil War. Dale’s e-mail 

is dale.moss@twc.com 


Cover Story 

Beautiful & Local 

Capitol Jewelers in Corydon offers restoration, repairs, and customized items 

Story by Darian Decker 

Photos by Michelle Hockman Photography 

Capitol Jewelers is invested 

in making sure you have 

the best experience possible. 

Co-owners Lana Higginbotham 

and Mark Peyron have 

a combined 60 years of experience 

in the jewelry business. 

The store opened on Chestnut 

Street in Corydon in the spring of 

2018. Originally, both Higginbotham 

and Peyron worked with 

Albin Jewelers, which had been 

in Corydon for 70 years. When 

the owners retired and that store 

closed, the pair decided to go into 

business together. 

“I started right out of high 

school. My mother used to work at 

a jewelry store when I was growing 

up,” Higginbotham said. “It was 

something that I was passionate 

about.” 

Peyron took on the trade as a 

side job and fell in love with restoration, 

repairs and customized 

items. 

In terms of starting the business, 

Higginbotham said they had 

quite the following of customers 


from Albin. 

“We treat them like family — 

we know them and their kids and 

now their kids are coming in,” she 

said. 

Apart from local customers 

in Corydon, they also have a large 

customer base in Brandenburg, 

New Albany, Louisville and farther 

down in Kentucky. 

The store carries a broad range 

— everything from colored stones 

to diamonds, all metals, sterling silver 

and more. 

“We try to have something affordable 

for everybody. A lot of our 

business is on our repair side also, 

being able to customize a purchase 

or restoring something. We do laser 

engraving customization as well,” 

Higginbotham said. 

They research vendors and are 

very selective with whose products 

they feature. Higginbotham said 

they have someone for diamonds 

she’s known for 30 years. 

“We try to get ones (vendors) 

we are close to,” she said. “We depend 

on them, and we know what 

their product is.” 

Higginbotham specifically 

mentioned their unique Samuel B. 

line. The products are sterling with 

a little bit of 18k gold and genuine 

gemstones. 

For Higginbotham herself, she 

said, “I’m a diamond girl.” 

In the past two years, she said 

the small business community has 

really taken off in Corydon. “We’re 

getting a lot of new businesses in — 

a lot of different kinds of businesses,” 

she said. “I really think that 

the downtown is starting to really 

thrive.” 

Part of this boom, she said, is 

an increase in young people returning 

to local shopping. 

“It’s been really great to see.” 

The store offers a loyalty program 

where points are rewarded 

for every purchase made. Points 

can then be used toward new purchases. 

They also offer extra perks 

occasionally or early shopping for 

their sales. 

Higginbotham said they incorporated 

permanent jewelry recent-

“We try to have something affordable for everybody. A lot of our 

business is on our repair side also, being able to customize a purchase or 

restoring something. We do laser engraving customization as well.” 

- Lana Higginbotham, Co-owner of Capitol Jewelers 

Co-owner Mark Peyron 


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ly and have a new program coming 

up called CounterSketch. 

“We will be able to sit down 

with a customer and actually custom 

design a ring right there on the 

computer screen with them,” she 

said. “They can actually visually 

change the stone, change the metal, 

change the height — they can do so 

much and see it on there in 3D.” 

Higginbotham said she loves 

what she does and has the best staff 

she could ask for. This includes her 

co-owner, Mark, along with Claudia, 

Hannah, Josh and Kimberley. 

“They give 100%,” she said. 

She hopes customers always 

have a great experience and always 

feel welcome. 

“We’re not pushy — we don’t 

try to oversell to people. We want 

them to be able to make up their 

own mind,” she said. “We have 

people that come in to visit even 

when they’re not needing something, 

and that’s special.” 

Capitol Jewelers stands out 

among the rest due to its focus on 

customer service. 

“That’s one thing in this day 

and age that you do not get at most 

places and that is our No. 1 priority,” 

she said. “We strive to make 

somebody happy when they come 

in the door and out the door.” • 

Capitol Jewelers is open Monday to 

Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday, 

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. You can check them 

out at shopcapitoljewelers.com. 

Pictured: ( from left to right) Hannah Willoughby 

(store manager), Josh Kardell, Lana Higginbotham, 

and Mark Peyron. 

“Live simply, live your way, love God, and enjoy the 

smallest moments because they are huge.“ 

- Lana Higginbotham 

Co-owner of Capitol Jewelers, when asked her life’s motto 


Artist Spotlight: Woodworking 


Inspired by the Natural Beauty of Wood 

The home and workshop of artist, 

Rob Roby, is situated on 

forty acres of partially forested 

land, next to a small 

sawmill, just outside of Lanesville 

in Harrison County. This location 

has distinct advantages for this artist 

who describes his work as “being 

all about showcasing the underlying 

beautyand allure of natural 

wood.” Fallen trees on his own 

property can be initially sawed 

by his neighbor who also supplies 

Roby with some of the most intriguing 

logs that come through the mill. 

About half of Roby’s land is 

pasture, accommodating 6 horses 

and well-tended gardens. “My 

wife, Lela, takes care of all of this,” 

Roby said. “She competed for 30 

years as an Endurance Rider, and 

still rides for fun and takes care of 

the horses and gardens. I am happier 

spending my time in my workshop,” 

Roby said to emphasize his 

priorities. 

Roby built his shop in 1984, 

even before the couple’s home was 

built. It is a 30 ’x 40’ structure brimming 

with the multiple tools needed 

for the wide variety of projects 

he takes on. A large table used to 

create conference sized tale tops 

takes up about a third of the space. 

Additionally, the shop is outfitted 

with lathes for woodturning, saws, 

planes, drum sanders, a full array 

of hand tools, finishing powders, 

liquids, and raw wood. 

It is the raw wood that Roby 

revels in talking about. Pointing 

to a piece of raw maple, he called 

attention to tiny holes in the wood 

made by the ambrosia beetle. 

“These holes look like tiny pinholes 

bored through the wood,” Roby 

said. “The beetles excavate tunnels 

in dead, stressed, and even healthy 

trees carrying spores of the ambrosia 

fungus on their feet. The fungus 

penetrates the tree’s xylem tissue 

causing the wood to stain,” Roby 

explained. The fungus can damage 

healthy trees, so an infestation can 

be a headache for property owners. 

But for Roby, the invasion of beetles 

results in unique and stunning patterns 

on Maplewood that he finds 

beautiful. 

He recently completed a dining 

room table, made of this ambrosia-stained 

maple, for a local 

patron. 

He finished it with a commercial 

hard wax oil product, so the 

original wood pattern is quite visible. 

He also creates large “Epoxy 

River Tables,” named because the 

table appears to have a “river” 

flowing down its center. He created 

several of these for a restaurant – 

Solidago – in Paint Lick, Kentucky. 

He has also created conference 

tables and smaller tables with the 

epoxy finish that resembles a river. 

Roby explained part of the process: 

“I add a powdered dye to the epoxy. 

The pattern of the wood’s 

grain gives it direction. There are 

Story by Judy Cato 

Photos by Lorraine Hughes (except where noted) 

endless combinations of interaction 

between various wood grains and 

different dyes. Every experiment 

is like unwrapping a gift – always 

a surprise.” 

Roby describes the evolution 

of his art as a slow progression over 

fifty years of learning by trying different 

things. 

While still a high school student 

– in Jeffersonville – he began 

working for his uncle’s pallet 

making business. “Some pieces of 

wood were so beautiful, I took them

home,” he said. “I would also select 

pieces of wood from a pile of firewood 

that I could not bear to burn.” 

Boxelder was, and still is, one of his 

favorite woods. “It is very white, 

but in certain trees, there are big red 

streaks. One of the prettiest pieces I 

ever made was a vase out of a piece 

of boxelder with a big burl in it,” 

Roby said. 

After he graduated from college, 

he began to make things with 

the wood pieces he had salvaged. 

Roby explained: “In 1973, I made 

a holder for my dad’s inkwell and 

quill pen, for him to set on his desk 

This was my first piece – made 

from one of those salvaged pieces 

of wood.” 

After a few years working in 

his field of biology at Wolf Research 

Center in Battle Ground, Indiana, 

Roby changed directions. He got 

a job as a Cabinet Installer at Starlight 

Cabinet Company in southern 

Indiana, closer to home. By 1977, 

he had set up his own woodshop 

where he created pieces for friends 

and family, including an old-fashioned 

hand-hewn bed made from 

barn timbers. After he established 

his current workshop, he made 

custom cabinets in his Lanesville 

shop and worked full time for Louisville 

Cement. He took his first 

woodturning class in 2005 and began 

turning out bowls, platters, 

urns, vases on his lathe. Many of 

these pieces are made from another 

of Roby’s favorite woods: cherry. 

“Cherry starts out a light pink and 

darkens over time to a rich reddish 

hue with a lustrous patina. It also 

has a mesmerizing kaleidoscope 

grain pattern,” Roby said to explain 

why he values the wood. 

Roby has been working as a 

full-time artist since his retirement 

in 2014. Although he is even more 

passionate today about his woodworking 

than he was earlier in his 

career, his life is not lived entirely 

tucked away in his studio. He rides 

horses with his wife, Lela. He plays 

rhythm guitar with a group that 

have been together off and on since 

high school. For the past 10 years, 

he has been mentoring high school 

students in the Industrial Arts Club 

at Corydon Central High School. • 

Roby’s smaller artworks can be viewed 

at Harrison Couty Arts in Corydon. 

He can also be found on Facebook at 

Lathe of Heaven and also Rob Roby 

“Some pieces of wood were so beautiful, 

I took them home. I would also select 

pieces of wood from a pile of firewood 

that I could not bear to burn.” 

- Rob Roby 

Pictured: (left hand page) Epoxy River Table // photo provided by Rob Roby; (this page, from top) Rob 

in his workshop; an urn in progress; cutting boards by Rob Roby. 


Artist Spotlight: Fashion 

Mixed media artist and 

fashion designer Wende 

Cudmore works out 

of a large, but packed, 

basement studio in her home, just 

blocks from Salem’s Downtown 

Historic District. 

Nearly every surface of her 

studio is covered with artworks in 

various stages of completion. Between 

January and April of each 

year, her exuberant art-making 

process spills over into the main 

floor of the home as she prepares 

for “KMAC Couture,” an annual 

runway show of innovative fashion 

presented by the KMAC Contemporary 

Art Museum in Louisville. 

During those months, Cudmore’s 

designs and wearable art 

are moved to a makeshift dressing 

room upstairs where the pieces can 

be tried on by professional models 

who will walk the runway. 

Cudmore’s partner, artist Ron 

Gurgol, has a woodturning studio 

on the other side of their home, and 

there is also a gallery next to this 

where the couple display finished 

pieces, including many collaborations 

made by the two of them. 

At 71 years of age, Cudmore is 

a classic exemplar of “a late bloomer” 

who proves there is no deadline 

for achieving one’s dreams. 

She grew up in East Aurora, New 

York — a small town outside Buffalo 

— where she helped out in the 

family’s gardens, and learned to 

sew and quilt from her mother, a 

seamstress. 

“I excelled in home economics 

classes,” Cudmore said about 

her school years. “My high school 

counselor steered me away from 

college — he thought I was not 

smart enough — and toward marriage 

and homemaking. I listened 

to him.” 

Cudmore has always had a 

creative streak: Her family nicknamed 

her “the weekend painter.” 

“At the back of my mind, I always 

wanted to prove that counselor was 

wrong about me,” Cudmore said. 

In 2002, she moved to Salem with 

her partner, who had a job teaching 

at Prosser. 

In 2009, at age 58, she enrolled 

at Indiana University Southeast, 

choosing art as a major. And suddenly, 

just like that, Cudmore’s 

life accelerated beyond her wildest 

dreams. She won scholarships and 

awards. Her work was featured in 


From Homemaker to Fashion Designer 

Behind the scenes with Washington County artist Wende Cudmore 

solo exhibitions, permanent collections 

and publications. 

Her spirit of experimentation 

and exploration carried her forward. 

“In a class in papermaking, 

I got the idea to use pressed fruits 

and vegetables to make fabric for 

clothing” Cudmore said. “My background 

in gardening, cooking and 

sewing converged with my new artistic 

skills in this project of making 

wearable art. Of course, a lot of trial 

and error occurred along the way.” 

Her first artwork using fabric 

made from pressed fruits and vegetables 

was a Derby hat that she 

entered as part of her application to 

KMAC Couture. “To my surprise, 

they accepted my work,” Cudmore 

said. “I was scared to pieces.” 

The process of turning fruits 

and vegetables into fabric is timeconsuming 

and complex. After slicing 

the various fruits and vegetables 

about ¼-inch thick, the slices 

are semi-blanched and placed in 

a fabric dye bath. The dyed pieces 

are laid out on paper and cloth, 

covered with paper and cloth, and 

compressed in a Gurgol Press, designed 

by her partner. To remove 

moisture, the paper and cloths are 

Story by Judy Cato 

Photos by Lorraine Hughes 

changed twice a day. 

Depending on the type of 

plant used, it takes five to 10 days 

for the fabric to be ready. If the 

pieces are placed to overlap in the 

press, the result is a sheet of fabric. 

If they are separated, the result will 

be medallion-like pieces that can be 

sewn onto fabric. 

“I think of my mom when 

I’m working,” Cudmore said. “She 

loved to garden and sew. At one 

level, I am carrying on these female 

craft traditions of preserving food 

and making clothing. At another 

level, I am using art to transform 

the way we think about these basic 

necessities. My art raises questions 

about how we choose what we put 

on and into our bodies, and who 

decides.” 

Cudmore’s designs are stunning 

ensembles that exude the essence 

of nature. “I learned to appreciate 

nature as a child, hiking with 

my family, including eating wild 

things straight from the forest,” 

Cudmore said. 

The history of fashion taking 

from nature goes back as far as 

humanity — from animal skin to 

keep warm to precious stones and

sea pearls to reflect status. In all 

of Cudmore’s designs, the inside 

of the fruit or vegetable — its patterns, 

texture, form — becomes an 

art piece itself. 

Her overall clothing designs 

are also often based on some natural 

creature or landscape. “Butterfly 

Muse,” “Bird-Being,” “Coral Reef” 

and “Nightsky” are a few of her 

pieces that directly evoke the natural 

world. 

In her piece “Nature,” modeled 

by Willa Petit in KMAC Couture, 

2023, Cudmore exposes the 

intricate patterns of the interiors 

of passion fruit, rambutan fruit, 

apples, cucumbers, turnips and 

daikon radishes by incorporating 

these fruits and vegetables onto the 

costume. The headpiece of the ensemble 

is composed of many items 

collected straight from nature, such 

as a bird nest, dried lavender, locust 

pods, lichens and more. The colors, 

flow and movement of the seasons 

are also evident in the entire design. 

Almost every year since 2014, 

Cudmore has had at least one design 

accepted into KMAC Couture’s 

Annual Fashion Show, and 

usually more. In 2023, she had three 

designs in the show. 

She also creates other artworks 

from pressed fruits and vegetables. 

She has made lampshades, bowls, 

window hangings, wall hangings 

and sculptural pieces. On the wood 

and resin bowls made by Gurgol, 

Cudmore usually adds a pressed 

fruit or vegetable in the seat or under 

the lid of each bowl. 

Since she first started the BFA 

program at Indiana University 

Southeast more than a decade ago, 

Cudmore has not slowed down. 

“It has been a wild ride,” she said, 

“and one I never would have foreseen. 

But this is the right journey 

for me, I am certain. Every piece is 

an exploration, deepening connections 

to my childhood and family, 

to my partner, and a journey into 

myself.” • 

At 71 years of age, Cudmore is a classic exemplar of “a late bloomer” 

who proves there is no deadline for achieving one’s dreams. 

Pictured: (left hand page) Wende Cudmore, at her home; (this page, from top left, clockwise) a design made of fruits and vegetables from Wende’s garden; Three 

of Wende’s designs, backstage at KMAC Couture in 2023; a close up look at the fabric created from fruits and vegetables; a headpieced designed by Wende. 


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Life is a journey, and the path 

we follow takes many turns 

and twists along the way. 

Sometimes, it leads us back 

to the beginning. This is the full circle 

journey that led Orleans native 

Brandy Ream, executive director of 

Visit French Lick West Baden, back 

home. In fact, if you had told Ream 

when she attended the 2005 French 

Lick Resort Casino groundbreaking 

that she would ultimately return 

to head up tourism for the destination, 

she would have thought you 

were crazy. Now Ream spends the 

better part of her days marketing 

the historic charm of her beloved 

hometown as a world-class vacation 

destination. 

From Ski Industry to Marketing 

Ream’s journey began in the 

small town of Orleans, where she 

attended elementary, middle and 

high school. She continued her 

education at Indiana University in 

Bloomington, earning a Bachelor of 

Arts, and then went on to earn her 

Master of Business Administration 

in Organizational Development 

and Leadership from the College 

of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minnesota. 

Eager to put her marketing 

and business skills to use, Ream 

returned home to take the reins at 

Paoli Peaks Ski Area. As director 

of sales and marketing, she helped 

put Southern Indiana on the map 

as a viable Midwest ski destination. 

Not only did her efforts promote 

Paoli as a winter ski playground, 

but they also were instrumental in 

garnering attention to the region 

as a year-round outdoor recreation 

destination. In 2007, she moved 

to Ohio to work for Peak Resorts, 

where she further expanded her 

leadership skills as director of marketing 

and business development. 

She continued her 20-year ski industry 

career at resorts across the 

country, including Ski Bluewood 

in Dayton, Washington, and Spirit 

Mountain in Duluth, Minnesota. 

The Road Back Home 

Throughout her career travels, 


Looking Back 

A Full Circle Journey 

Story by Colleen Philbrick 

Photos submitted by Brandy Ream 

Ream never forgot her roots. “I always 

found myself telling others 

how beautiful springtime was in 

Southern Indiana,” she said. “With 

the dogwood trees in full bloom, 

there really isn’t any other place 

like it.” 

When the pandemic hit, Ream 

reflected on her life and decided it 

was time for a change. “There was 

something always pulling me back 

to Southern Indiana,” she said. As 

a mother to daughter Ella, 17, and 

son J.B., 19, she longed for her teenagers 

to be closer to family and experience 

the slower pace of Paoli. 

It just so happened that her 

intended move also coincided with 

a new career opportunity. The Orange 

County Convention and Visitors 

Bureau had been actively seeking 

an executive director to market 

the destination using innkeepers 

tax collections. Ream felt the role 

was a perfect opportunity to combine 

her marketing and business 

background with her love for Orange 

County. She accepted the position 

and has been the destination’s 

biggest ambassador since 2021. 

Hometown Ambassador 

Orleans, Indiana 

When asked about the favorite 

part of heading tourism for Visit 

French Lick West Baden, Ream said, 

“I love it all. I mean, how fortunate 

am I to be a cheerleader for the destination 

I love most?” “It is exciting 

for me to promote everything we

have to offer, from fine dining restaurants 

and family-friendly attractions 

to boutique shops and diverse 

natural landscapes.” 

Moving home has also proved 

to be a godsend for Ream on a personal 

level. In October 2021, she 

was diagnosed with stage four 

breast cancer. To say the diagnosis 

was a surprise is an understatement. 

“I initially thought I had a 

spider bite. My cancer diagnosis 

was a complete shock,” she said. To 

date, Ream has persevered through 

17 rounds of chemotherapy, a double 

mastectomy and continued 

treatments. 

Ream is thankful to be home 

and credits her family with the 

healing process. “I love being back 

in the area. My dad is only three 

miles from my home in one direction 

and my sister three miles in the 

other direction,” Ream said. Her 

family and friends have provided 

much-needed moral support, seeing 

her through doctor visits and 

treatments and providing meals. 

“I don’t know that I could have 

fought this battle had I not been 

home,” she said. 

Ream continues her fight 

with a smile and some sage advice 

from her godmother, Reggie McElroy. 

“Head up, heels down”” was 

McElroy’s signature advice. While 

she was initially using the term in 

reference to how to sit when riding 

a horse, it carried deeper meaning 

to Ream as the years went by. “In 

my hardships in life, this advice 

continues to remind me to keep my 

head held high and to keep moving 

forward no matter how small the 

step,” she said. 

An Exciting Road Ahead 

Ream is optimistic about her 

future and what’s on the horizon for 

French Lick West Baden as a tourist 

destination. With the pandemic 

in the rearview mirror, she has already 

seen a big boom in tourism 

to the area. “Lodging continues to 

be sold out months in advance, and 

we have seen a record number of 

innkeepers tax collections. Group 

business, especially tour bus operators, 

are also close to pre-pandemic 

numbers,” Ream said. She also 

shared that tourism numbers are 

already forecast to be promising in 

2024 and 2025. She attributes the renewed 

interest in the area as a direct 

correlation to the small-town charm 

One thing is certain: Ream will continue to find 

happiness in Orange County. And when the 

dogwoods are in bloom, you might just catch her 

sitting on the front porch at French Lick Resort, 

one of her favorite pastimes. 

and diverse offerings French Lick 

West Baden encompasses. Through 

research and guest feedback, Ream 

said that travelers are looking for 

drivable destinations that provide 

memorable experiences and diverse 

recreational offerings for everyone. 

“In FLWB, visitors can truly 

enjoy countless indoor and outdoor 

attractions nestled in the tranquility 

of the Hoosier National Forest. Our 

towns are quaint and showcase 

Hoosier hospitality at its finest.” 

Ream’s journey has indeed 

taken her full circle back to Orleans. 

She fondly recalls her lobbying days 

in the late 1990s when she was part 

of the original “Orange Shirts” — 

the group that would travel to the 

statehouse to lobby for legalized 

gambling to come to French Lick. If 

Brandy Ream, Executive Director 

of Visit French Lick West Baden 

you take a quick glance around her 

office, you will notice her original 

hard hat and photo from the French 

Lick Resort groundbreaking proudly 

hanging on her wall. 

As for what the future holds, 

Ream plans to spend more time 

at home with family, cooking and 

working on her yoga practice. She 

also looks forward to hiking Arches 

National Park in Utah, starting a 

wildflower garden and being declared 

cancer-free. 

One thing is certain: Ream will 

continue to find happiness in Orange 

County. And when the dogwoods 

are in bloom, you might just 

catch her sitting on the front porch 

at French Lick Resort, one of her favorite 

pastimes. “I love our quaint 

little town,” she said. • 


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A tranquil country setting nestled in the 

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John Hay Center 

Looking for a unique event center for your next 

meeting? The Stevens Memorial Museum has 

a meeting area. It has a genealogical library, 

displays, artifacts and lots of historical items. 

Enjoy looking around before or after your 

meeting. Also, 

The Depot has a 

nice meeting room. 

Again, a railroad museum 

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Mindfulness may be a relatively 

new (or brand new!) 

term in your vocabulary. 

According to the Mayo 

Clinic, mindfulness is “a type of meditation 

in which you focus on being intensely 

aware of what you’re sensing 

and feeling in the moment, without 

interpretation or judgment.” Benefits 

of meditation can include a decrease in 

stress, anxiety, pain, depression and insomnia. 

Mindfulness is even being taught 

to children as early as primary school. 

In the growing field of mindfulnessbased 

interventions, there is even a relation 

to nutrition in the field of mindful 

eating. Mindful eating takes the practice 

of mindfulness to help connect the person 

to the process of eating both physically 

and emotionally. Early research 

has shown that mindful eating can help 

with binge eating, emotional eating, 

external eating (eating based on time, 

place or availability of food with no regard 

for hunger cues) and weight loss 

and/or weight maintenance by improving 

the overall eating experience. 

Steps for mindful eating include: 

• Be distraction free — remove 

phones, televisions, computers and 

tablets. Eat in a clean and clutterfree 

space. 

• Enforce a time limit — eat for at 

least 20-30 minutes, consciously 

slowing down. Take small bites and 

chew food thoroughly. 

• Focus — pay close attention to 

the taste, smell and texture of the 

food. Think about how the food 

was grown and made its journey to 

your table. 

• Listen to your body — only begin 

your meal when hungry, but not 

starving, and stop eating at the first 

feeling of fullness. 

Following these steps should result 

in a more enjoyable dining experience. 

Other ways to practice mindfulness 

outside of eating include breathing 

exercises, meditation, walking, low-impact 

exercise such as yoga or tai chi or 

journaling. • 

Do YOU have a food, nutrition or cooking 

question you’d like answered by one of our 

experts? If so, send your query to katharine.perkins@bhsi.com. 

It may be answered 

in a future issue! 

Photo credit: Natalia Klenova/shutterstock. 

com 

Real Life Nutrition 

Practice Mindful Eating 

Mindful eating takes the practice of mindfulness 

to help connect the person to the process of eating 

both physically and emotionally. 

About the Author 

Kate Perkins, MS, RD, 

LD, is a clinical dietitian 

at Baptist Health Floyd 

in New Albany. She 

graduated from University 

of Kentucky and 

completed her internship 

in Lexington, Kentucky. 

Although she has practiced in a variety 

of settings in the past 11 years, she finds the 

most joy in clinical nutrition applying evidencebased 

practices to improve patient care. In 

her spare time, she loves reading, staying active 

and trying local restaurants. 




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Everyday Adventures 

Itook a golf class in college because 

I thought it would be an easy A. I 

needed a P.E. credit, and I’m not 

exactly what you would call super 

athletic, so my goal was to find a way to 

earn it without running or doing pushups. 

When I saw that golf was an option, 

I thought I was home free. I’d never 

actually played the game before, but I 

was pretty sure our professor wouldn’t 

have us running laps or doing strength 

training. 

What I didn’t realize is that he 

would have us up at the crack of dawn 

on Friday morning hiking miles around 

a golf course. If I’d been in a flat state 

like Kansas, it would have been one 

thing. However, I went to school in the 

hills of Southern Indiana, which made 

this a different beast altogether. 

I figured the hardest part would be 

getting the ball through a windmill or a 

clown’s mouth, which I’d done plenty 

of times playing mini golf. It turns out 

real golf involves a lot more work. 

Also, did I mention it was a fall 

class? That meant that we were freezing 

for the first nine holes and then burning 

up by the time the sun got cooking on 

the back nine. Good old Indiana weather! 

It wasn’t just the temperature 

and terrain that made this a challenge, 

though. We also had to contend with the 

dew. 

I don’t know if they excessively 

watered the course overnight or if it 

happened to be located in a little-known 

Hoosier rainforest, but the fairway was 

soaking wet. Not that running around 

in soggy sneakers isn’t a blast, but these 

damp conditions also led to my most 

infamous golfing memory, the day I fell 

down in front of the entire class. 

It was one of those moments when 

I felt like Charlie Brown trying to kick 

the football. I’d been playing so terribly 

I was determined this time I was going 

to put that ball into orbit. I stepped up 

to the tee, ready to hit a hole-in-one. 

Instead, I got a hole in none. I swung 

so hard I completely missed the ball, 

slipped and fell flat on my face. 

That’s when I realized I probably 

wasn’t hitting the PGA circuit anytime 

soon. However, despite my incompetence, 

I pushed through and got an A. 

Thirty years after the fact, I may be 

exaggerating some of the harsh conditions 

I had to overcome, but you’ll have 

to excuse me. I recently learned that not 

everyone’s college experience was the 

same as mine. 

When my wife was in high school, 


my mother-in-law went back to college 

to finish her degree, and guess what 

class she took to satisfy her PE requirement. 

Golf, just like me. However, unlike 

me, she never had to leave the classroom. 

She never once had to get up early 

to lug a golf bag around a fairway, freezing, 

sweltering, searching for balls and 

generally being frustrated for hours on 

end. She never had to take a swing at a 

ball in front of her entire class and risk 

falling down on the job. 

No, she sat in her professor’s office 

and talked about golf, and then 

guess what. She got an A! An A! Not 

that I’m bitter about it. I’m envious. If 

I’d had the opportunity, I would have 

taken that sweet deal in a heartbeat. 

It reminds me of a story Jesus once 

told about a man who owned a vineyard. 

He went out at the crack of dawn 

and found some guys in town to work 

his fields. He promised to pay them a 

denarius, which was a fair day’s wages. 

Then he needed more workers, so he 

went back to town four more times, and 

hired four more work crews, picking up 

the last group at 5 p.m. 

At the end of the day the farmer 

paid all five groups a denarius. Of 

course, the guys who had been working 

since dawn were steamed because 

they’d worked so much harder than the 

last crew hired. They received exactly 

what they had been promised, but felt 

like they deserved so much more. 

“Don’t I have the right to do what 

I want with my own money?” the landowner 

asked, “Or are you envious because 

I am generous?” (Matthew 20:15 

NIV). The answer to both was yes. 

Jesus’ point, however, is that’s just 

how grace works. It’s not about you 

The 11th Hour Golfer 

I figured the 

hardest part would 

be getting the ball 

through a windmill 

or a clown’s mouth, 

which I’d done 

plenty of times 

playing mini golf. It 

turns out real golf 

involves a lot 

more work. 

and how hard you work. It’s about the 

generosity and kindness of God. 

Some people grow up with faith, 

and spend their entire lives following 

God, working hard to honor Him even 

through the hardest times. Others of us 

may discover God’s love later in life, 

some not until our final moments. As 

long as we have breath in our lungs, it’s 

never too late. 

But what’s so amazing about 

grace is that whether you receive it at 7 

or 97, the result is the same: forgiveness, 

freedom and life forever with God. The 

reality is that none of us deserve this 

grace, but God freely gives it because of 

His great love. 

You want to know the real difference 

between my golf class and my 

mother-in-law’s? The guy who was 

handing out the grades. It doesn’t matter 

what I think is fair. It was his standard 

that mattered. 

The same thing is true of God. It 

doesn’t matter who you are, how old 

you are, what you’ve done or what other 

people think about you. What matters 

is saying yes to the generous gift 

offered by a God who loves you.• 

Photo credit: Photoongraphy / shutterstock.com. 

Jason Byerly is a writer, pastor, husband and 

dad who loves the quirky surprises God 

sends his way every day. You can read more 

from Jason in his books Tales from the Leaf Pile 

and Holiday Road. You can catch up with Jason 

on his blog at www.jasonbyerly.com.

I AM A CHAMPION FOR 

CRAWFORD COUNTY. 

CONTACT US TO MAKE YOUR 

CONTRIBUTION TRIPLE IN VALUE 

WITH A $2 MATCH FOR EVERY $1 

GIFT OF ANY SIZE TO ANY EXISTING 

OR NEW UNRESTRICTED 

COMMUNITY GRANTMAKING FUND. 

CALL US TODAY AT 

(812) 365-2900 

OR GO TO 

CF-CC.ORG/GIVING-OPTIONS/ 

TRIPLE YOUR GIVING. 

TRIPLE YOUR IMPACT. 

YOU CAN BE A CHAMPION, TOO! 

Lori S. Short 

(812) 736-3040 


New Albany | Memphis | Palmyra | Salem 

Times and locations att 

graceland.church 



EVERYONE’S HEARTBEAT IS UNIQUE. 

WE BELIEVE HEART CARE 

SHOULD BE, TOO. 

A NON-INVASIVE HEART SCREENING AT BAPTIST HEALTH FLOYD MAY HAVE 

SAVED JOHN’S LIFE when he experienced shortness of breath. The cardiac specialists 

detected a 95% blockage of blood flow to his heart and performed a triple bypass. This 

expertise in diagnosis and treatment of life-threatening cardiac conditions is one reason more 

people trust Baptist Health with their hearts than any other hospital system in Kentucky and 

Southern Indiana. Find out why you can, too, at BaptistHealth.com/HeartCare. 

Corbin | Floyd | Hardin | La Grange | Lexington | Louisville | Madisonville | Paducah | Richmond 

BaptistHealth.com

Southern Indiana Living - Jan/Feb 2024

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