Abramson Family Photograph Collection, ca. 1910-2011.

Held by The Filson Historical Society

Creator: Jerry Edwin Abramson

Title: The Abramson Family Photograph Collection, ca. 1910-2011.

Rights: For information regarding literary and copyright interest for these papers, contact the Collections Department.

Size of Collection: 1 cubic foot

Location Number: 020PC15

Scope and Content Note 

The Abramson family collection primarily documents the political career of former Mayor of Louisville Jerry Abramson and also includes photographs of his wife Madeline Malley Miller Abramson and other family members. Jerry Abramson served as Louisville 3rd Ward Alderman (1975-1978), General Counsel and Secretary of Justice to Governor John Y. Brown (1980-1981), Mayor of Louisville (1985-1998), Mayor of Louisville Metro (2003-2011), Lieutenant Governor in the administration of Governor Steve Beshear (2011-2014), and Deputy Assistant to President Barack Obama and Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs (2014-2016).

Folders 1-4 contain personal photographs of Jerry Abramson, Madeline Malley, and family members. Included are photographs of Jerry Abramson during his high school years, documenting his involvement with Jewish youth groups, and from his time at Indiana University and Army basic training at Fort Knox.

Folder 5 holds photographs of Jerry Abramson during the first part of his political career in the 1970s and early 1980s, relating to his years as Alderman and in Gov. Brown’s cabinet.

Folders 6-21 and albums 28-29 contain photographs pertaining to Abramson’s first campaign for Mayor of Louisville in 1985 and events during his first three mayoral terms from 1985-1998. Also of note are photographs from his bachelor party in Washington, D.C. in 1989, and ones documenting his involvement with the United States Conference of Mayors.

Folders 22-23 contain photographs from 2000-2011 and include Abramson’s years as Mayor of Louisville Metro and his inauguration as Lt. Governor of Kentucky.

Folders 24-27 consist of photographs, ca. 1970s-2010s, of Abramson with celebrities, British royalty, and Kentucky and national politicians and officials. Also included are publicity photographs of Abramson.

People of note in the photographs include Robert Kennedy, Harvey Sloane, Muhammad Ali, Terry Meiners, Wayne Perkey, Mary Bingham, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Colin Powell, Janet Reno, and Barack Obama. Among the events featured are ones related to the B’nai B’rith Youth Organization (BBYO), Aleph Zedek Aleph (AZA) fraternity, the Kentucky Derby, the Sister City program, and St. Patrick’s Day. See the folder listing in the attached finding aid for more information about these and other people and events pictured in the photographs. Photographers include Gus Frank and Gene Gilpin, among others.

The Filson deeply appreciates the volunteer work of Rabbi Stanley Miles in arranging the Abramson family photographs and writing the biographical note, and the assistance of Rabbi Miles and Jerry Abramson in identifying people and events in the photographs.

Related collections:

Abramson family papers, 1938-2016 [Mss. A A158].

Subject photograph of Abramson with Robert Kennedy, ca. 1967-1968 [PLT-39 (020PC15)]

Museum objects: New York City marathon cap [2021.30.1], “Mayors Care for You” United States Conference of Mayors pin [2021.30.2], “I Helped Build Waterfront Park” pin [2021.30.3], Jerry Abramson mayoral campaign button [2021.30.4], City of Louisville pins [2021.30.5-6], “Salute to Mayor Jerry E. Abramson” pin [2021.30.7].

 

Biographical Note

Jerry Edwin Abramson (1946- ) had a career which took him from a small grocery at the corner of Preston and Jacob Street to City Hall in Louisville, the Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort, and finally to an office in the West Wing of the White House in Washington, DC.

Abramson was born in Louisville, Kentucky on September 12, 1946, at Jewish Hospital. His parents were Roy Abramson (1917-1998) and Shirley Botwick Abramson (1920-2002), and he has one sibling Sheilah Abramson-Miles (1950- ).

Abramson attended the Louisville public schools of Greathouse and Hawthorne Elementary, Seneca Middle School, and Seneca High School, graduating in 1964. During high school he was active in the teen programs at the Jewish Community Center, particularly the national high school fraternity AZA (Aleph Zedek Aleph) sponsored by B’nai B’rith, an international Jewish social and service organization. Abramson assumed a leadership role locally in the Resnick AZA chapter and regionally in the KIO (Kentucky-Indiana-Ohio) district. At Seneca High School he played in the marching band, was active in debate, and sang in the rock band Apollo and the Sunsetters.

In 1964 Abramson began his undergraduate career at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. He was a member of the ZBT (Zeta Beta Tau) Jewish social fraternity. In 1966, Abramson ran for and was elected to the IU Union Board. The Union Board was responsible for programming at the Indiana Memorial Union, then the largest student union complex in the world. He was also selected for the Indiana University Foundation, which oversaw Little 500 Weekend, a 50-mile bicycle race described as the “World’s Greatest College Weekend.”

In the spring of 1968 Abramson became involved in the presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy. He was selected to lead Youth for Kennedy during the Indiana primary. Meeting, working, and traveling with Senator Kennedy had a profound effect on Abramson and inspired him to pursue a career in public service. Sadly, at the time of Abramson’s graduation from Indiana University, Senator Kennedy was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Abramson was invited to be on the funeral train from New York to Washington but declined because it would prevent him from attending his graduation ceremony.

In the fall of 1968 Abramson began his legal studies at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC. During the summer of 1969 he was drafted into the United States Army during the Vietnam War. He took basic training at Fort Knox in Kentucky and spent the remainder of his military career serving in the Judge Advocates Office at Fort Knox and the Presidio in San Francisco, CA. He left the service in the spring of 1971 and resumed law school at Georgetown where he had been elected to the Georgetown Law Review.

After graduating from Georgetown in the spring of 1973, Abramson returned to Louisville and took an Associate position at the Greenebaum, Doll, Matthews and Boone law firm. He also became active in both the secular and Jewish communities. In 1975 he ran for and was elected 3rd Ward Alderman in the Louisville Board of Aldermen. Abramson served two terms on the Board of Aldermen from 1975 to 1979. In 1980 Governor John Y. Brown chose him to be his general counsel and secretary of justice. He served in this position through 1981. Eventually Abramson became a partner in the Greenebaum, Doll and McDonald law firm.

In the early 1980s Abramson decided to run for mayor of Louisville. He was elected as mayor in 1985 and served until 1998. Jerry Abramson earned the nickname “Mayor for Life” as eventually he became the longest serving mayor in Louisville’s history.

During Abramson’s first term as mayor on June 24, 1989, he married Madeline Malley Miller (1955- ). Prior to Madeline’s marriage to Jerry, she converted to Judaism. Madeline grew up in a Catholic family in Louisville’s South End. They were active in the Democratic party and with the Kentucky Irish American newspaper. Madeline graduated from Holy Rosary Academy in 1973. She earned an Associate Degree in Real Estate from Jefferson Community College and an Associate Degree in Paralegal Studies from the University of Louisville. She worked at a variety of firms, ultimately becoming Executive Assistant to the General Counsel of US Bank and a Member of the Advisory Board. In 1991 the Abramsons adopted their son, Sidney (1991- ). In 2016 Sidney Abramson married Kandice Oppell; they have two children, Grayson Robert Abramson (2018- ) and Ruby Jane Abramson (2021- ).

Highlights of Jerry Abramson’s first terms (1985-1998) include the $700 million expansion of Louisville International Airport; the creation of Waterfront Park as part of the revitalization of Downtown Louisville; and the expansion of the local economy by recruiting Yum Brands and the Presbyterian (Church) USA to relocate to Louisville. In 1994 he was elected president of the United States Conference of Mayors.

After completing three terms as mayor in 1998, Abramson returned to the practice of law at Frost, Brown, Todd. During this time frame there was a successful campaign to merge the governments of Louisville and Jefferson County into the Louisville Metro government. Abramson was instrumental in this campaign. He was selected to run for the position of the first mayor of Louisville Metro, a position he occupied from 2002-2010. Abramson integrated the two pre-existing governments into one system.

At the end of Abramson’s second term as metro mayor, he decided not to run for a final third term. For many years he had been friendly with Steve Beshear, who was serving his first term as governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Beshear was seeking a candidate to run with him as his lieutenant governor for his second term, and Abramson joined the Beshear ticket. Abramson took office as lieutenant governor in December 2011.

In November of 2014 Abramson received an appointment from President Barack Obama to become Deputy Assistant to the president and White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs. Abramson’s focus was to serve as liaison between the White House and state and local governments and Indigenous tribes.

When Abramson left the White House at the end of the Obama administration, he resumed his faculty position at Bellarmine University. In late 2018 he left Bellarmine to accept a position at Spalding University as executive-in-residence.

References
Carol Ely, Jewish Louisville: Portrait of a Community (2003), pp. 122, 175, 201, 216, 219, 228.

 

Folder List 

Box 1

Folder 1: Abramson family, ca. 1910-1951. Includes photographs of Jerry Abramson’s parents Roy and Shirley Abramson; his paternal grandparents Sidney and Sadie Abramson and their daughter Sylvia; Sidney’s brother Lester; Jerry Abramson’s Greathouse School kindergarten class, Spring 1951.

Folder 2: Malley and Abramson families, ca. 1970s-1990s, undated. Includes photograph of an unidentified female ancestor of Madeline Malley; Malley and her sister; Roy, Shirley, Madeline, Jerry, and Sidney Abramson.

Folder 3: High school, 1960s. Includes photographs from Seneca High School; B’nai B’rith Youth Organization (BBYO); Aleph Zedek Aleph (AZA) fraternity.

Folder 4: Indiana University and U.S. Army basic training, 1960s.

Folder 5: Falls of the Ohio and political events, 1970s-early 1980s. Includes photographs from Falls of the Ohio; 3rd ward Alderman campaign and swearing in; Board of Alderman meetings and events; JCC Man of the Year; dedication of Kentucky Bar Center, 1980; Democratic National Committee, 1982; Gov. John Y. Brown’s cabinet and Derby brunch.

Folder 6: Photographs from album compiled by Roy Abramson, 1 of 2, ca. 1980-1986. Includes photographs of first mayoral campaign; election night; first day in office; inauguration and ball; family members; Billy Crystal at Kentucky Derby festival

Folder 7: Photographs from album compiled by Roy Abramson, 2 of 2, ca. 1986, 1990-1993. Includes photographs of Muhammad Ali signing copy of the Koran; Historic Parkland ribbon cutting; Red Cross blood drive; Bob Edwards; Mayor’s SummerScene; Abramson receiving Justice Award from Louisville Jewish community; Derby Festival Tea; U of L NCAA champs; St. Patrick’s day parade; United Jewish Appeal Young Leadership Conference; Abramson addressing Board of Alderman

Folder 8: Mayoral campaign, 1985

Folder 9: Mayoral inauguration, December 1985

Folder 10: Mayoral term, January-May 1986. Includes photographs of NPR host Bob Edwards at the library; Black Achievers banquet; Abramson with Terry Meiners on WHAS; WHAS crusade for children; Louis Levine and Carl Bensinger; throwing out first pitch; outstanding high school senior banquet; Historic Parkland ribbon cutting; victims’ rights press conference; Cherokee Triangle gazebo; Worth Plaza groundbreaking; signing of city-county compact; 2100 Chestnut ribbon cutting; Bellarmine commencement address; Sister Cities event; Louisville Zoo train

Folder 11: Mayoral term, June-July 1986. Includes photographs of Operation Brightside; dedication of new building at Home of the Innocents; Return of Riverfront celebration at Belvedere; Paul Hornung’s induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame; city-county compact signing ceremony; Terry Meiners portrait unveiling; selection of Russell Sanders as Fire Chief; firefighters honored

Folder 12: Mayoral term, August-December and unidentified months, 1986. Includes photographs of delegation from China; Germantown-Paristown Neighborhood Center dedication; Kentucky Candidate Speak Out; Metro United Way campaign; Abramson’s 40th birthday party; USA/AAU karate champs; meeting with Toyota officials; Humana Hospital 25th anniversary; dinner for ANYTOWN; Baxter Recreation Center; commissioning of the USS Louisville; Light up Louisville; Andrew Young; Iroquois Amphitheater renovation; dedication of Col. Harland Sanders Geriatric Center

Folder 13: Mayoral term, January-June 1987. Includes photographs of Abramson filing for reelection; the Mayor’s Players; groundbreaking for Shakespeare in Central Park; Liberty Hall home partnership program; Kensington Place residential project groundbreaking; Mockingbird Gardens groundbreaking; St. Patrick’s day parade; Home Place dedication; Streetball promo game; outstanding high school senior banquet; Wendell Cherry recognition ceremony; Youth Performing Arts School celebration at Superintendent Dr. Donald Ingwerson’s home; Barrier awareness day at Humana; WalkAmerica; Compact anniversary

Folder 14: Mayoral term, July-December and unidentified months, 1987. Includes photographs of Operation Brightside; crafts fair at the Watertower; 80th birthday party for Gen. Dillman A. Rash; Toonerville II trolley; Old Walnut Street Park dedication; 2 hours free parking at the Galleria announcement; The Islands dedication; Christmas parade; Volunteers of America (VOA) apartments for homeless; New Year’s Eve at Theater Square; trip to England; Sister Cities plaque dedication

Folder 15: Kentucky Derby Festival and events, ca. 1980s-1990s. Includes photographs of senior citizen event at Senior House on Muhammad Ali Blvd; steamboat race; Pegasus Parade; KFC Take It to the Bucket West End Shoot-out

Folder 16: Destination Louisville rally and Presbyterian General Assembly, 1987

Folder 17: Mayoral term, 1988-1989. Includes photographs of Melissa Mershon and Reginald Meeks; Operation Brightside; Courthouse and Jefferson Street; Breeders’ Cup; City Fest; David Stoner, head of Presbyterian church; Gov. Wallace Wilkinson; Dukakis campaign event; Wayne Perkey; visit by Naval Ordnance Station officials; General Electric (GE) CEO Roger Schipke

Folder 18: Jerry Abramson’s bachelor party, Washington, D.C. and the White House, June 1989. Includes photographs of Charles Buddeke, Bill Lomika, Marvin Holthausen, Tom Jarrell, Bob Allison

Folder 19: United States Conference of Mayors, 1987, 1994-1996

Folder 20: Miscellaneous events, ca. 1980s-1990s. Includes photographs of Toonerville II trolley; the Monarchs; Reed Yader; blood donation event; Louisville Falls Fountain; Dickens on Main Street; Kentucky Shakespeare at St. James Court; Winn Dixie Streetball Showdown; Iroquois Park rededication; Mayor’s SummerScene; opening of Waterfront Park; Courier-Journal aerial image of waterfront before the Great Lawn; Sister City Tamale, Ghana event.

Folder 21: Miscellaneous events, 1990s. Includes photographs of Sister City event with Georges Freche, mayor of Montpellier, France; visit to Sister City of Mainz, Germany; Dainty contest; dedication of the Louisville Slugger Museum; renovation of Brinly-Hardy warehouse for Slugger Field; 1992 presidential campaign event; Asia-Pacific Forum II; City Fair; Churchill Downs president Thomas H. Meeker; Alderman Bill Wilson; Abramson leaving mayor’s office.

Folder 22: Miscellaneous events, 2000-2006. Includes photographs of the 2003 Louisville Metro mayoral campaign; dedication of Slugger Field; Abramson visit to Montpellier, France; Kentucky Derby events; mayor’s office staff members; French diplomat Jean-David Levitte; Abramson’s visit to Sister City Leeds, England

Folder 23: Lt. Governor inauguration, 2011

Folder 24: Celebrities and British royalty, ca. 1980s-early 2000s. Includes photographs of Muhammad Ali; Mary Bingham; George Clooney; Neil Diamond; Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.

Folder 25: Kentucky politicians and officials, ca. 1970s-1990s. Includes photographs of Gov. John Brown and Phyllis Brown and their newborn baby Lincoln Brown; Gov. Martha Layne Collins; Harvey Sloane and Gov. Wallace Wilkinson; Gov. Paul Patton; Senator Wendell Ford and Ford with Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel; Gov. Brereton Jones and Representative William Huston Natcher; Mike Ward; David Karem, Wilson Wyatt, and Frank Burke

Folder 26: National politicians and officials, ca. 1980s-2010s. Includes photographs of Roslyn Carter; Michael Dukakis during presidential campaign of 1988; President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton; Vice President Al Gore; General Colin Powell; Attorney General Janet Reno; Rep. John Lewis; Sen. Mitch McConnell; President Barack Obama.

Folder 27: Publicity photographs, ca. 1980s-1990s

Album 28: Mayoral election, 5 November 1985

Album 29: Mayoral inauguration, 28-29 December 1985. Friday night dinner at home of Inez and Jack Segall (pp. 1-2); Keneseth Israel worship service on Saturday morning (pp. 2-3); inaugural ball at Brown Hotel (pp. 3-28); inauguration ceremony and reception at the Kentucky Center for the Arts (pp. 28-37); family photos (pp. 39-42); setting up City Hall (pp. 42-48).

 

Subject Headings

Abramson, Jerry E., 1946-

Abramson, Madeline Malley Miller, 1955-

Indiana University.

Jewish families – Kentucky – Louisville.

Jewish mayors – Kentucky – Louisville.

Keneseth Israel (Louisville, Ky.)

Kentucky Derby.

Lieutenant governors – Kentucky.

Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government (Ky.)

Louisville (Ky.) – History.

Louisville (Ky.) – Politics and government.

Mayors – Kentucky – Louisville.

Miles, Stanley R., 1948-

Political campaigns – Kentucky – Louisville.

Waterfronts – Kentucky – Louisville.