History and lore
Abby Marlatt, the only child of Frederick and Annie Marlatt, followed her aunt and namesake into home economics and nutrition. At the University of Kentucky she led the School of Home Economics from 1956 to 1963, and in 1959 she founded Lexington’s chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality, organizing sit-ins and protests against segregation. Her later opposition to the Vietnam War cost her a demotion and an investigation by the university. She received the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Medallion in 1985 for her spirit of service and was inducted into the Kentucky Civil Rights Hall of Fame in 2001.