Harriett Abraham Rose

Harriett Abraham Rose was born in 1920 in Shelbyville, Kentucky. Her parents moved to nearby Lexington when she was four, where her father opened the city’s first dairy to sell pasteurized milk. She grew up surrounded by aunts, uncles, and cousins, with strong ties to her Reform Jewish faith. Except for a year during college and a few years during and after World War II, Harriett has spent her life as a Lexingtonian. She graduated from the University of Kentucky (UK) in 1941, moved to Dayton to support the war effort, and married Stan Rose in 1943. In 1949 the couple returned to Kentucky with their two sons. In the mid-1960s she returned to UK for a PhD in counseling psychology. She then served as executive director of the university’s counseling and testing center until she retired. In 1999 she became a columnist for a local monthly newspaper, a post she continues to fill as one of the city best-loved nonagenarians.