Summary:
Donald L. Pace was interviewed on September 15, 2011 at his home on Lower River Road in Louisville. Pace recalls the old City of Louisville Alms House and surrounding businesses in Shively where he visited his Father’s service station in the late 1930s. Soon thereafter, the Pace family moved to Orell on south Dixie Highway where for many decades his father and later Don and his brother ran a well-known garage and service station.
Don attended Medora Elementary School, was graduated in 1951 from Valley High School, and in the early 1950s was a U. S. Army soldier in Korea just after the cessation of conflict. His recollections focus on those seven decades in the Orell community where he attended school, worked in the family business and was involved with his family in the formation of the South Dixie volunteer fire service. Stimulated by the growth of Fort Knox and suburbanization, he describes the transformation of southwest county from small truck farms to an urbanized residential and commercial center. Pace recalls industrial work at Kosmos Cement and an area distillery, relations with African-Americans in the area, saloons and bars, and community life during World War II.
