Behind the Headlines

The Herald-Leader has undergone a changing of the guard in its Eastern Kentucky Bureau. 
Lee Mueller (in photo at left), who has covered Eastern Kentucky for the paper for almost three decades, is retiring after a storied career that involved covering many of Eastern Kentucky’s biggest stories. But we’re thrilled that he will still contribute to the Herald-Leader with a weekly column about Eastern Kentucky. Look for Lee’s column to start running in the City/Region section on Sunday, Aug. 5 — and on Sundays after that. We wish Lee lots of luck in retirement, but we’re happy he’ll still be lending his voice to the paper.

The Herald-Leader remains committed to aggressively covering this news-rich part of the state. So Lee will pass the torch of the paper’s Eastern Kentucky bureau to Cassondra Kirby, a native of Knott County and an Eastern Kentucky University graduate. Cassondra has covered Lexington police for the Herald-Leader and was most recently the newspaper’s regional reporter based in Richmond. She’ll start in Eastern Kentucky immediately and will be based in Hazard in Perry County. If you have a story idea about Eastern Kentucky, email her at the address above.

We described these changes in a story that ran in Saturday’s newspaper. Here it is:

"Lee Mueller, who covered Eastern Kentucky for the Herald-Leader for almost 30 years, has retired after a writing career that began in the 1960s and took him all over the world. Friday was his last regular day on the job.

"But Mueller, 65, isn’t putting away his pen for good. Starting Aug. 5, he will write a weekly column for the Herald-Leader, covering issues in his native Eastern Kentucky. First, he plans to slip in a trip to Scotland to play golf, a game that is his principal passion after journalism and good food.

"Mueller worked at the Ashland Daily Independent in the early 1960s, and was the Lexington Herald’s high school sports editor in 1965-66. He then moved to the Roanoke Times, where he covered basketball and golf and wrote columns.

"From 1968 to 1971, Mueller worked in New York City for the Newspaper Enterprise Association, writing humor columns, sports stories and travel pieces that took him to England and other countries. That led to a job with Golf magazine, which allowed him to play golf in places like Tahiti and write stories about it. Mueller won the National Golf Writers Association magazine writing award in 1974.

"Back in Kentucky, he spent a year teaching sixth grade at the Tomahawk Elementary School in Martin County and still calls it “the best thing I ever did.”

"Mueller returned to the Lexington Herald in 1979 as a copy editor, and also wrote environmental stories and restaurant reviews. He became the paper’s Eastern Kentucky correspondent the next year, a post he held until his retirement.

"Mueller says he still isn’t sure what form his new column will take, but wants to do something that “will get people’s attention.”

"Herald-Leader Richmond Bureau Reporter Cassondra Kirby, a native of Knott County, will move into the newspaper’s Eastern Kentucky Bureau, which will be located in Hazard."

Peter Baniak
Metro editor