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Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing.

After a tumultuous adolescence, Fitzgerald found stability in musical success with the Chick Webb Orchestra, performing across the country but most often associated with the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. Her rendition of the nursery rhyme "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" helped boost both her and Webb to national fame. After taking over the band when Webb died, Fitzgerald left it behind in 1942 to start her solo career. Her manager was Moe Gale, co-founder of the Savoy, until she turned the rest of her career over to Norman Granz, who founded Verve Records to produce new records by Fitzgerald. With Verve, she recorded some of her more widely noted works, particularly her interpretations of the Great American Songbook.

Fitzgerald also appeared in films and as a guest on popular television shows in the second half of the twentieth century. Outside her solo career, she created music with Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and The Ink Spots. These partnerships produced songs such as "Dream a Little Dream of Me", "Cheek to Cheek", "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall", and "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)". In 1993, after a career of nearly sixty years, she gave her last public performance. Three years later, she died at age 79 after years of declining health. Her accolades included 14 Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts, the NAACP's inaugural President's Award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Early life
Fitzgerald was born on April 25, 1917, in Newport News, Virginia. She was the daughter of William Ashland Fitzgerald, a transfer wagon driver from Blackstone, Virginia, and Temperance "Tempie" Henry, both described as mulatto in the 1920 census. Her parents were unmarried but lived together in the East End section of Newport News for at least two and a half years after she was born. In the early 1920s, Fitzgerald's mother and her new partner, a Portuguese immigrant named Joseph da Silva, moved to Yonkers, in Westchester County, New York. Her half-sister, Frances da Silva, was born in 1923. By 1925, Fitzgerald and her family had moved to nearby School Street, a poor Italian area. She began her formal education at the age of six and was an outstanding student, moving through a variety of schools before attending Benjamin Franklin Junior High School in 1929.

She and her family were Methodists and were active in the Bethany African Methodist Episcopal Church, where she attended worship services, Bible study, and Sunday school. The church provided Fitzgerald with her earliest experiences in music. Starting in third grade, Fitzgerald loved dancing and admired Earl Snakehips Tucker. She performed for her peers on the way to school and at lunchtime.

Fitzgerald listened to jazz recordings by Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, and The Boswell Sisters. She loved the Boswell Sisters' lead singer Connee Boswell, later saying: "My mother brought home one of her records, and I fell in love with it...I tried so hard to sound just like her."

In 1932, when Fitzgerald was 15 years old, her mother died from injuries sustained in a car accident. Fitzgerald's stepfather took care of her until April 1933 when she moved to Harlem to live with her aunt. This seemingly swift change in her circumstances, reinforced by what Fitzgerald biographer Stuart Nicholson describes as rumors of "ill treatment" by her stepfather, leaves him to speculate that Da Silva might have abused her.

Fitzgerald began skipping school, and her grades suffered. She worked as a lookout at a bordello and with a Mafia-affiliated numbers runner. She never talked publicly about this time in her life. When the authorities caught up with her, she was placed in the Colored Orphan Asylum in Riverdale in The Bronx. When the orphanage proved too crowded, she was moved to the New York Training School for Girls, a state reformatory school in Hudson, New York.

Early career
While she seems to have survived during 1933 and 1934 in part by singing on the streets of Harlem, Fitzgerald debuted at the age of 17 on November 21, 1934, in one of the earliest Amateur Nights at the Apollo Theater. She had intended to go on stage and dance, but she was intimidated by a local dance duo called the Edwards Sisters and opted to sing instead. Performing in the style of Connee Boswell, she sang "Judy" and "The Object of My Affection" and won first prize. She won the chance to perform at the Apollo for a week but, seemingly because of her disheveled appearance, the theater never gave her that part of her prize.

In January 1935, Fitzgerald won the chance to perform for a week with the Tiny Bradshaw band at the Harlem Opera House. Later that year, she was introduced to drummer and bandleader Chick Webb by Bardu Ali. Although "reluctant to sign her...because she was gawky and unkempt, a 'diamond in the rough,'" after some convincing by Ali, Webb offered her the opportunity to test with his band at a dance at Yale University.

Met with approval by both audiences and her fellow musicians, Fitzgerald was asked to join Webb's orchestra and gained acclaim as part of the group's performances at Harlem's Savoy Ballroom. Fitzgerald recorded several hit songs, including "Love and Kisses" and "(If You Can't Sing It) You'll Have to Swing It (Mr. Paganini)". But it was her 1938 version of the nursery rhyme, "A-Tisket, A-Tasket", a song she co-wrote, that brought her public acclaim. "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" became a major hit on the radio and was also one of the biggest-selling records of the decade.

Webb died of spinal tuberculosis on June 16, 1939, and his band was renamed Ella Fitzgerald and Her Famous Orchestra, with Fitzgerald taking on the role of bandleader. Ella and the band recorded for Decca and appeared at the Roseland Ballroom, where they received national exposure on NBC radio broadcasts.

She recorded nearly 150 songs with Webb's orchestra between 1935 and 1942. In addition to her work with Webb, Fitzgerald performed and recorded with the Benny Goodman Orchestra. She had her own side project, too, known as Ella Fitzgerald and Her Savoy Eight.

Decca years

In 1942, with increasing dissent and money concerns in Fitzgerald's band, Ella Fitzgerald and Her Famous Orchestra, she started to work as lead singer with The Three Keys, and in July her band played their last concert at Earl Theatre in Philadelphia. While working for Decca Records, she had hits with Bill Kenny & the Ink Spots, Louis Jordan, and the Delta Rhythm Boys. Producer Norman Granz became her manager in the mid-1940s after she began singing for Jazz at the Philharmonic, a concert series begun by Granz.

With the demise of the swing era and the decline of the great touring big bands, a major change in jazz music occurred. The advent of bebop led to new developments in Fitzgerald's vocal style, influenced by her work with Dizzy Gillespie's big band. It was in this period that Fitzgerald started including scat singing as a major part of her performance repertoire. While singing with Gillespie, Fitzgerald recalled: "I just tried to do [with my voice] what I heard the horns in the band doing."

Her 1945 scat recording of "Flying Home" arranged by Vic Schoen would later be described by The New York Times as "one of the most influential vocal jazz records of the decade....Where other singers, most notably Louis Armstrong, had tried similar improvisation, no one before Miss Fitzgerald employed the technique with such dazzling inventiveness." Her bebop recording of "Oh, Lady Be Good!" (1947) was similarly popular and increased her reputation as one of the leading jazz vocalists.

Verve years

Fitzgerald made her first tour of Australia in July 1954 for the Australian-based American promoter Lee Gordon. This was the first of Gordon's famous "Big Show" promotions and the "package" tour also included Buddy Rich, Artie Shaw and comedian Jerry Colonna.

Although the tour was a big hit with audiences and set a new box office record for Australia, it was marred by an incident of racial discrimination that caused Fitzgerald to miss the first two concerts in Sydney, and Gordon had to arrange two later free concerts to compensate ticket holders. Although the four members of Fitzgerald's entourage – Fitzgerald, her pianist John Lewis, her assistant (and cousin) Georgiana Henry, and manager Norman Granz – all had first-class tickets on their scheduled Pan-American Airlines flight from Honolulu to Australia, they were ordered to leave the aircraft after they had already boarded and were refused permission to re-board the aircraft to retrieve their luggage and clothing. As a result, they were stranded in Honolulu for three days before they could get another flight to Sydney. Although a contemporary Australian press report quoted an Australian Pan-Am spokesperson who denied that the incident was racially based, Fitzgerald, Henry, Lewis and Granz filed a civil suit for racial discrimination against Pan-Am in December 1954 and in a 1970 television interview Fitzgerald confirmed that they had won the suit and received what she described as a "nice settlement".

Fitzgerald was still performing at Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic (JATP) concerts by 1955. She left Decca, and Granz, now her manager, created Verve Records around her. She later described the period as strategically crucial, saying: "I had gotten to the point where I was only singing be-bop. I thought be-bop was 'it', and that all I had to do was go some place and sing bop. But it finally got to the point where I had no place to sing. I realized then that there was more to music than bop. Norman ... felt that I should do other things, so he produced Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book with me. It was a turning point in my life."

On March 15, 1955, Ella Fitzgerald opened her initial engagement at the Mocambo nightclub in Hollywood, after Marilyn Monroe lobbied the owner for the booking. The booking was instrumental in Fitzgerald's career. Bonnie Greer dramatized the incident as the musical drama, Marilyn and Ella, in 2008. It had previously been widely reported that Fitzgerald was the first black performer to play the Mocambo, following Monroe's intervention, but this is not true. African-American singers Herb Jeffries, Eartha Kitt, and Joyce Bryant all played the Mocambo in 1952 and 1953, according to stories published at the time in Jet magazine and Billboard.

Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book, released in 1956, was the first of eight Song Book sets Fitzgerald would record for Verve at irregular intervals from 1956 to 1964. The composers and lyricists spotlighted on each set, taken together, represent the greatest part of the cultural canon known as the Great American Songbook. Her song selections ranged from standards to rarities and represented an attempt by Fitzgerald to cross over into a non-jazz audience. The sets are the most well-known items in her discography and by 1956 Fitzgerald's recordings were showcased nationally by Ben Selvin within the RCA Thesaurus transcription library.

Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book was the only Song Book on which the composer she interpreted played with her. Duke Ellington and his longtime collaborator Billy Strayhorn both appeared on exactly half the set's 38 tracks and wrote two new pieces of music for the album: "The E and D Blues" and a four-movement musical portrait of Fitzgerald. The Song Book series ended up becoming the singer's most critically acclaimed and commercially successful work, and probably her most significant offering to American culture. The New York Times wrote in 1996, "These albums were among the first pop records to devote such serious attention to individual songwriters, and they were instrumental in establishing the pop album as a vehicle for serious musical exploration."

Days after Fitzgerald's death, The New York Times columnist Frank Rich wrote that in the Song Book series Fitzgerald "performed a cultural transaction as extraordinary as Elvis' contemporaneous integration of white and African-American soul. Here was a black woman popularizing urban songs often written by immigrant Jews to a national audience of predominantly white Christians." Frank Sinatra, out of respect for Fitzgerald, prohibited Capitol Records from re-releasing his own recordings in separate albums for individual composers in the same way.

Fitzgerald also recorded albums exclusively devoted to the songs of Porter and Gershwin in 1972 and 1983; the albums being, respectively, Ella Loves Cole and Nice Work If You Can Get It. A later collection devoted to a single composer was released during her time with Pablo Records, Ella Abraça Jobim, featuring the songs of Antônio Carlos Jobim.

While recording the Song Books and the occasional studio album, Fitzgerald toured 40 to 45 weeks per year in the United States and internationally, under the tutelage of Norman Granz. Granz helped solidify her position as one of the leading live jazz performers. In 1961 Fitzgerald bought a house in the Klampenborg district of Copenhagen, Denmark, after she began a relationship with a Danish man. Though the relationship ended after a year, Fitzgerald regularly returned to Denmark over the next three years and even considered buying a jazz club there. The house was sold in 1963, and Fitzgerald permanently returned to the United States.

There are several live albums on Verve that are highly regarded by critics. At the Opera House shows a typical Jazz at the Philharmonic set from Fitzgerald. Ella in Rome and Twelve Nights in Hollywood display her vocal jazz canon. Ella in Berlin is still one of her best-selling albums; it includes a Grammy-winning performance of "Mack the Knife" in which she forgets the lyrics but improvises to compensate.

Verve Records was sold to MGM in 1960 for $3 million and in 1967 MGM failed to renew Fitzgerald's contract. Over the next five years she flitted between Atlantic, Capitol and Reprise. Her material at this time represented a departure from her typical jazz repertoire. For Capitol she recorded Brighten the Corner, an album of hymns, Ella Fitzgerald's Christmas, an album of traditional Christmas carols, Misty Blue, a country and western-influenced album, and 30 by Ella, a series of six medleys that fulfilled her obligations for the label. During this period, she had her last US chart single with a cover of Smokey Robinson's "Get Ready", previously a hit for the Temptations, and some months later a top-five hit for Rare Earth.

The surprise success of the 1972 album Jazz at Santa Monica Civic '72 led Granz to found Pablo Records, his first record label since the sale of Verve. Fitzgerald recorded some 20 albums for the label. Ella in London recorded live in 1974 with pianist Tommy Flanagan, guitarist Joe Pass, bassist Keter Betts and drummer Bobby Durham, was considered by many to be some of her best work. The following year she again performed with Joe Pass on German television station NDR in Hamburg. Her years with Pablo Records also documented the decline in her voice. "She frequently used shorter, stabbing phrases, and her voice was harder, with a wider vibrato", one biographer wrote. Plagued by health problems, Fitzgerald made her last recording in 1991 and her last public performances in 1993.

Film and television

Fitzgerald played the part of singer Maggie Jackson in Jack Webb's 1955 jazz film Pete Kelly's Blues. The film costarred Janet Leigh and singer Peggy Lee. Even though she had already worked in the movies (she sang two songs in the 1942 Abbott and Costello film Ride 'Em Cowboy), she was "delighted" when Norman Granz negotiated the role for her, and, "at the time ... considered her role in the Warner Brothers movie the biggest thing ever to have happened to her." Amid The New York Times pan of the film when it opened in August 1955, the reviewer wrote, "About five minutes (out of ninety-five) suggest the picture this might have been. Take the ingenious prologue ... [or] take the fleeting scenes when the wonderful Ella Fitzgerald, allotted a few spoken lines, fills the screen and sound track with her strong mobile features and voice."

After Pete Kelly's Blues, she appeared in sporadic movie cameos, in St. Louis Blues (1958) and Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1960).

She made numerous guest appearances on television shows, singing on The Frank Sinatra Show, The Carol Burnett Show, The Andy Williams Show, The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, and alongside other greats Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, Mel Tormé, and many others. She was also frequently featured on The Ed Sullivan Show. Perhaps her most unusual and intriguing performance was of the "Three Little Maids" song from Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operetta The Mikado alongside Joan Sutherland and Dinah Shore on Shore's weekly variety series in 1963. A performance at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London was filmed and shown on the BBC. Fitzgerald also made a one-off appearance alongside Sarah Vaughan and Pearl Bailey on a 1979 television special honoring Bailey. In 1980, she performed a medley of standards in a duet with Karen Carpenter on the Carpenters' television special Music, Music, Music.

Fitzgerald also appeared in TV commercials, including an ad for Memorex. In the commercials, she sang a note that shattered a glass while being recorded on a Memorex cassette tape. The tape was played back and the recording also broke another glass, asking: "Is it live, or is it Memorex?" She also appeared in a number of commercials for Kentucky Fried Chicken, singing and scatting to the fast-food chain's longtime slogan: "We do chicken right!" Her last commercial campaign was for American Express, in which she was photographed by Annie Leibovitz.

Ella Fitzgerald Just One of Those Things is a film about her life including interviews with many famous singers and musicians who worked with her and her son. It was directed by Leslie Woodhead and produced by Reggie Nadelson. It was released in the UK in 2019.

Collaborations
Fitzgerald's most famous collaborations were with the vocal quartet Bill Kenny & the Ink Spots, trumpeter Louis Armstrong, the guitarist Joe Pass, and the bandleaders Count Basie and Duke Ellington.
 * From 1943 to 1950, Fitzgerald recorded seven songs with the Ink Spots featuring Bill Kenny. Of the seven, four reached the top of the pop charts, including "I'm Making Believe" and "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall", which both reached No. 1.
 * Fitzgerald recorded three Verve studio albums with Louis Armstrong, two albums of standards (1956's Ella and Louis and 1957's Ella and Louis Again), and a third album featured music from the Gershwin opera Porgy and Bess. Fitzgerald also recorded a number of sides with Armstrong for Decca in the early 1950s.
 * Fitzgerald is sometimes referred to as the quintessential swing singer, and her meetings with Count Basie are highly regarded by critics. Fitzgerald features on one track on Basie's 1957 album One O'Clock Jump, while her 1963 album Ella and Basie! is remembered as one of her greatest recordings. With the 'New Testament' Basie band in full swing, and arrangements written by a young Quincy Jones, this album proved a respite from the 'Song Book' recordings and constant touring that Fitzgerald was engaged in during this period. Fitzgerald and Basie also collaborated on the 1972 album Jazz at Santa Monica Civic '72, and on the 1979 albums Digital III at Montreux, A Classy Pair and A Perfect Match.
 * Fitzgerald and Joe Pass recorded four albums together toward the end of Fitzgerald's career. She recorded several albums with piano accompaniment, but a guitar proved the perfect melodic foil for her. Fitzgerald and Pass appeared together on the albums Take Love Easy (1973), Easy Living (1986), Speak Love (1983) and Fitzgerald and Pass... Again (1976).
 * Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington recorded two live albums and two studio albums. Her Duke Ellington Song Book placed Ellington firmly in the canon known as the Great American Songbook, and the 1960s saw Fitzgerald and the 'Duke' meet on the Côte d'Azur for the 1966 album Ella and Duke at the Cote D'Azur, and in Sweden for The Stockholm Concert, 1966. Their 1965 album Ella at Duke's Place is also extremely well received.

Fitzgerald had a number of famous jazz musicians and soloists as sidemen over her long career. The trumpeters Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie, the guitarist Herb Ellis, and the pianists Tommy Flanagan, Oscar Peterson, Lou Levy, Paul Smith, Jimmy Rowles, and Ellis Larkins all worked with Fitzgerald mostly in live, small group settings.

Illness and death
Fitzgerald had diabetes for several years of her later life, which had led to numerous complications. In 1985, Fitzgerald was hospitalized briefly for respiratory problems, in 1986 for congestive heart failure, and in 1990 for exhaustion. In March 1990, she appeared at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England, with the Count Basie Orchestra for the launch of Jazz FM, plus a gala dinner at the Grosvenor House Hotel at which she performed. In 1993, she had to have both of her legs amputated below the knee due to the effects of diabetes. Her eyesight was affected as well.

She died in her home from a stroke on June 15, 1996, at the age of 79. A few hours after her death, the Playboy Jazz Festival was launched at the Hollywood Bowl. In tribute, the marquee read: "Ella We Will Miss You." Her funeral was private, and she was buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.

Personal life
Fitzgerald married at least twice, and there is evidence that suggests that she may have married a third time. Her first marriage was in 1941, to Benny Kornegay, a convicted drug dealer and local dockworker. The marriage was annulled in 1942. Her second marriage was in December 1947, to the famous bass player Ray Brown, whom she had met while on tour with Dizzy Gillespie's band a year earlier. Together they adopted a child born to Fitzgerald's half-sister, Frances, whom they christened Ray Brown Jr. With Fitzgerald and Brown often busy touring and recording, the child was largely raised by his mother's aunt, Virginia. Fitzgerald and Brown divorced in 1953, due to the various career pressures both were experiencing at the time, though they would continue to perform together.

In July 1957, Reuters reported that Fitzgerald had secretly married Thor Einar Larsen, a young Norwegian, in Oslo. She had even gone as far as furnishing an apartment in Oslo, but the affair was quickly forgotten when Larsen was sentenced to five months' hard labor in Sweden for stealing money from a young woman to whom he had previously been engaged.

Fitzgerald was notoriously shy. Trumpet player Mario Bauzá, who played behind Fitzgerald in her early years with Chick Webb, remembered that "she didn't hang out much. When she got into the band, she was dedicated to her music...She was a lonely girl around New York, just kept herself to herself, for the gig." When, later in her career, the Society of Singers named an award after her, Fitzgerald explained, "I don't want to say the wrong thing, which I always do but I think I do better when I sing."

From 1949 to 1956, Fitzgerald resided in the St. Albans neighborhood of Queens, New York, an enclave of prosperous African Americans where she counted among her neighbors Illinois Jacquet, Count Basie, Lena Horne, and other jazz luminaries.

Fitzgerald was a civil rights activist. She was awarded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Equal Justice Award and the American Black Achievement Award. In 1949, Norman Granz recruited Fitzgerald for the Jazz at the Philharmonic tour. The Jazz at the Philharmonic tour would specifically target segregated venues. Granz required promoters to ensure that there was no "colored" or "white" seating. He ensured Fitzgerald was to receive equal pay and accommodations regardless of her sex and race. If the conditions were not met shows were cancelled.

Bill Reed, author of Hot from Harlem: Twelve African American Entertainers, referred to Fitzgerald as the "Civil Rights Crusader", facing discrimination throughout her career. In 1954 on her way to one of her concerts in Australia she was unable to board the Pan American flight due to racial discrimination. Although she faced several obstacles and racial barriers, she was recognized as a "cultural ambassador", receiving the National Medal of Arts in 1987 and America's highest non-military honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In 1993, Fitzgerald established the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation focusing on charitable grants for four major categories: academic opportunities for children, music education, basic care needs for the less fortunate, medical research revolving around diabetes, heart disease, and vision impairment. Her goals were to give back and provide opportunities for those "at risk" and less fortunate. In addition, she supported several nonprofit organizations like the American Heart Association, City of Hope, and the Retina Foundation.

Discography and collections
The primary collections of Fitzgerald's media and memorabilia reside at and are shared between the Smithsonian Institution and the US Library of Congress.

Awards, citations and honors
Fitzgerald won 13 Grammy Awards, and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1967.

In 1958 Fitzgerald became the first African-American woman to win at the inaugural show.

Other major awards and honors she received during her career were the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Medal of Honor Award, National Medal of Art, first Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award (named "Ella" in her honor), Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement, UCLA Spring Sing, and the UCLA Medal (1987). Across town at the University of Southern California, she received the USC "Magnum Opus" Award, which hangs in the office of the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation. In 1986, she received an honorary doctorate of music from Yale University. In 1990, she received an honorary doctorate of Music from Harvard University.

Tributes and legacy
The career history and archival material from Fitzgerald's long career are housed in the Archives Center at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, while her personal music arrangements are at the Library of Congress. Her extensive cookbook collection was donated to the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University, and her extensive collection of published sheet music was donated to UCLA. Harvard gave her an honorary degree in music in 1990.

In 1997, Newport News, Virginia created a week-long music festival with Christopher Newport University to honor Fitzgerald in her birth city.

Ann Hampton Callaway, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Patti Austin have all recorded albums in tribute to Fitzgerald. Callaway's album To Ella with Love (1996) features 14 jazz standards made popular by Fitzgerald, and the album also features the trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. Bridgewater's album Dear Ella (1997) featured many musicians that were closely associated with Fitzgerald during her career, including the pianist Lou Levy, the trumpeter Benny Powell, and Fitzgerald's second husband, double bassist Ray Brown. Bridgewater's following album, Live at Yoshi's, was recorded live on April 25, 1998, what would have been Fitzgerald's 81st birthday.

Austin's album, For Ella (2002) features 11 songs most immediately associated with Fitzgerald, and a twelfth song, "Hearing Ella Sing" is Austin's tribute to Fitzgerald. The album was nominated for a Grammy. In 2007, We All Love Ella, was released, a tribute album recorded for Fitzgerald's 90th birthday. It featured artists such as Michael Bublé, Natalie Cole, Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight, Diana Krall, k.d. lang, Queen Latifah, Ledisi, Dianne Reeves, Linda Ronstadt, and Lizz Wright, collating songs most readily associated with the "First Lady of Song". Folk singer Odetta's album To Ella (1998) is dedicated to Fitzgerald, but features no songs associated with her. Her accompanist Tommy Flanagan affectionately remembered Fitzgerald on his album Lady be Good ... For Ella (1994).

"Ella, elle l'a", a tribute to Fitzgerald written by Michel Berger and performed by French singer France Gall, was a hit in Europe in 1987 and 1988. Fitzgerald is also referred to in the 1976 Stevie Wonder hit "Sir Duke" from his album Songs in the Key of Life, and the song "I Love Being Here With You", written by Peggy Lee and Bill Schluger. Sinatra's 1986 recording of "Mack the Knife" from his album L.A. Is My Lady (1984) includes a homage to some of the song's previous performers, including 'Lady Ella' herself. She is also honored in the song "First Lady" by Canadian artist Nikki Yanofsky.

In 2008, the Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center in Newport News named its new 276-seat theater the Ella Fitzgerald Theater. The theater is located several blocks away from her birthplace on Marshall Avenue. The Grand Opening performers (October 11 and 12, 2008) were Roberta Flack and Queen Esther Marrow.

In 2012, Rod Stewart performed a "virtual duet" with Ella Fitzgerald on his Christmas album Merry Christmas, Baby, and his television special of the same name.

There is a bronze sculpture of Fitzgerald in Yonkers, the city in which she grew up, created by American artist Vinnie Bagwell. It is located southeast of the main entrance to the Amtrak/Metro-North Railroad station in front of the city's old trolley barn. The statue's location is one of 14 tour stops on the African American Heritage Trail of Westchester County. A bust of Fitzgerald is on the campus of Chapman University in Orange, California. Ed Dwight created a series of over 70 bronze sculptures at the St. Louis Arch Museum at the request of the National Park Service; the series, "Jazz: An American Art Form", depicts the evolution of jazz and features various jazz performers, including Fitzgerald.

On January 9, 2007, the United States Postal Service announced that Fitzgerald would be honored with her own postage stamp. The stamp was released in April 2007 as part of the Postal Service's Black Heritage series.

In April 2013, she was featured in Google Doodle, depicting her performing on stage. It celebrated what would have been her 96th birthday.

On April 25, 2017, the centenary of her birth, UK's BBC Radio 2 broadcast three programmes as part of an "Ella at 100" celebration: Ella Fitzgerald Night, introduced by Jamie Cullum; Remembering Ella; introduced by Leo Green; and Ella Fitzgerald – the First Lady of Song, introduced by Petula Clark.

In 2019, Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things, a documentary by Leslie Woodhead, was released in the UK. It featured rare footage, radio broadcasts and interviews with Jamie Cullum, Andre Previn, Johnny Mathis, and other musicians, plus a long interview with Fitzgerald's son, Ray Brown Jr.

In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Fitzgerald at No. 45 on their list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.

title: Ella Fitzgerald


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Lexington, Kentucky

Lexington is a consolidated city coterminous with, and the county seat of, Fayette County, Kentucky, United States. As of the 2020 census the city's population was 322,570, making it the second-most populous city in Kentucky (after Louisville), and the 60th-most populous city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 30th-largest city.

Lexington is known as the "Horse Capital of the World" due to the hundreds of horse farms in the region, as well as the Kentucky Horse Park, The Red Mile and Keeneland race courses. It is within the state's Bluegrass region. Notable locations within the city include venues Rupp Arena and Central Bank Center, colleges and universities such as the University of Kentucky, Transylvania University, and Bluegrass Community and Technical College, and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) Headquarters.

The city anchors the Lexington–Fayette metropolitan area of 516,811 people and the greater Lexington–Fayette–Richmond–Frankfort combined statistical area of 747,919 people. It has been consolidated entirely within Fayette County since 1974 and has a nonpartisan mayor-council form of government, with 12 council districts and three members elected at large, with the highest vote-getter designated vice mayor.

History
Lexington was named in June 1775, in what was then considered Fincastle County, Virginia, 17 years before Kentucky became a state. A party of frontiersmen, led by William McConnell, camped on the Middle Fork of Elkhorn Creek (now known as Town Branch and rerouted under Vine Street) at the site of the present-day McConnell Springs. Upon hearing of the colonists' victory in the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, they named the site Lexington. It was the first of many American places to be named after the Massachusetts town.

On January 25, 1780, 45 original settlers signed the Lexington Compact, known also as the "Articles of Agreement, made by the inhabitants of the town of Lexington, in the County of Kentucky." The settlement at Lexington at this time was also known as Fort Lexington, as it was surrounded by fortifications to protect from potential attacks from British-allied Indians. The Articles allocated land by granting "In" lots of 1/2 acre to each share, along with "Out" lots of 5 acres for each share. Presumably the "In" lots were for the family dwelling inside the fortifications, while the "Out" lots were to be "cleared" for farming. (Corn is the only crop specifically mentioned in the Articles.) It is known that several of these original settlers (perhaps many of them) served under General George Rogers Clark in the Illinois campaign (also called the Northwestern campaign) against the British in 1778–79. While the ostensible founder of Lexington, William McConnell, is not one of the signees, an Alexander McConnell is. Within two years of signing the Agreement, both John and Jacob Wymore were killed by Indians in separate incidents outside the walls of "Fort Lexington".

In December 1781, a huge caravan of around 600 pioneers from Spotsylvania County, Virginia—dubbed "The Travelling Church"—arrived in the Lexington area. Led by the preacher Lewis Craig and Captain William Ellis, the Travelling Church established numerous churches, including the South Elkhorn Christian Church in Lexington. On May 6, 1782, the town of Lexington was chartered by an act of the Virginia General Assembly. Around 1790, the First African Baptist Church was founded in Lexington by Peter Durrett, a Baptist preacher and slave held by Joseph Craig. Durrett had helped guide "The Travelling Church" on its trek to Kentucky. This church is the oldest black Baptist congregation in Kentucky and the third-oldest in the United States.

In the early 1800s, Lexington was a rising city of the vast territory to the west of the Appalachian Mountains; Josiah Espy described it in a published version of his notes as he toured Ohio and Kentucky: Lexington is the largest and most wealthy town in Kentucky, or indeed west of the Allegheny Mountains; the main street of Lexington has all the appearance of Market Street in Philadelphia on a busy day ... I would suppose it contains about five hundred dwelling houses [it was closer to three hundred], many of them elegant and three stories high. About thirty brick buildings were then raising, and I have little doubt but that in a few years it will rival, not only in wealth, but in population, the most populous inland town of the United States ... The country around Lexington for many miles in every direction, is equal in beauty and fertility to anything the imagination can paint and is already in a high state of cultivation.

In the early 19th century, Lexington planter John Wesley Hunt became the first millionaire west of the Alleghenies. Henry Clay, a lawyer who married into one of the wealthiest families of Kentucky and served as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives in 1812, helped to lead the War Hawks, pushing for war with Britain to bolster the markets of American products. Six companies of volunteers came from Lexington, with a rope-walk on James Erwin's farm on the Richmond Road used as a recruiting office and barracks until the war ended. Several Lexingtonians served with prominence as officers in the war. For example, Captain Nathaniel G.S. Hart commanded the Lexington Light Infantry (also known as the "Silk Stocking Boys") and was killed while a captive after the Battle of the River Raisin. Henry Clay also served as a negotiator at the Treaty of Ghent in 1814.

The growing town was devastated by a cholera epidemic in 1833, which had spread throughout the waterways of the Mississippi and Ohio valleys: 500 of 7,000 Lexington residents died within two months, including nearly one-third of the congregation of Christ Church Episcopal. London Ferrill, second preacher of First African Baptist, was one of three clergy who stayed in the city to serve the suffering victims.

Farmers in the areas around Lexington held slaves for use as field hands, laborers, artisans, and domestic servants. In the city, slaves worked primarily as domestic servants and artisans, although they also worked with merchants, shippers, and in a wide variety of trades. Farms raised commodity crops of tobacco and hemp, and thoroughbred horse breeding and racing became established in this part of the state. By 1850, Lexington had the highest concentration of enslaved people in the entire state. The city also had a significant population of free blacks, who were often of mixed race. By 1850, First African Baptist Church, led by London Ferrill, a free black from Virginia, had a congregation of 1,820 persons. At that time, First African Baptist Church had the largest congregation of any church, black or white, in the state of Kentucky.

20th century to present
City school superintendent Massillon Alexander Cassidy (1886–1928) implemented Progressive Era reforms. He focused on upgrading the buildings and setting up teacher-training. He emphasized the need to improve literacy rates and expand access to public schooling. Cassidy's own philosophy stressed the use of science, business, and expertise. He also had a paternalistic attitude toward blacks, who were in segregated public schools.

Amidst the tensions between black and white populations over the lack of affordable housing in the city, a race riot broke out on September 1, 1917. At the time, the Colored A. & M. Fair (one of the largest African American fairs in the South) on Georgetown Pike had attracted more African Americans from the surrounding area into the city. Also during this time, some United States National Guard troops were camping on the edge of the city. Three troops passed in front of an African American restaurant and shoved some people on the sidewalk. A fight broke out, reinforcements for the troops and civilians both appeared, and soon a riot began. The Kentucky National Guard was summoned, and once the riot had ended, armed soldiers and police patrolled the streets. All other National Guard troops were barred from the city streets until the fair ended.

On February 9, 1920, tensions flared up again, this time over the trial of Will Lockett, a black man who murdered Geneva Hardman, a 10-year-old white girl. When a large mob gathered outside the courthouse where Lockett's trial was underway, Kentucky Governor Edwin P. Morrow massed the National Guard troops into the streets to work alongside local law enforcement. As the mob advanced on the courthouse, the National Guard opened fire, killing six and wounding 50 others. Fearing further retaliation from the mob, Morrow urged the United States Army to provide assistance. Led by Brigadier General Francis C. Marshall, approximately 1,200 federal troops from nearby Camp Zachary Taylor moved into the city the same day to assist National Guard forces and local police in bringing order and peace. Marshall declared martial law in the city and had soldiers positioned throughout the area for two weeks. Lockett was eventually executed on March 11 at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville, after being found guilty of murdering Hardman.

In 1935, during the Great Depression, the Addiction Research Center (ARC) was created as a small research unit at the United States Public Health Service hospital in Lexington. Founded as one of the first drug rehabilitation clinics in the nation, the ARC was affiliated with a federal prison. Expanded as the first alcohol and drug rehabilitation hospital in the United States, it was known as "Narco" of Lexington. The hospital was later converted to operate as part of the federal prison system; it is known as the Federal Medical Center, Lexington and serves a variety of health needs for prisoners. Lexington also served as the headquarters for a pack horse library in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

Geography
The Lexington-Fayette metro area includes five additional counties: Clark, Jessamine, Bourbon, Woodford, and Scott. This is the second-largest metro area in Kentucky after Louisville. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 285.5 sqmi. 284.5 sqmi of it is land and 1.0 sqmi of it (0.35%) is covered by water.

Cityscape
Lexington features a diverse cityscape.

Planning

Lexington has had to manage a rapidly growing population while working to maintain the character of the surrounding horse farms that give the region its identity. In 1958, Lexington enacted the nation's first urban growth boundary, restricting new development to an urban service area (USA). It set a minimum area requirement of 40 acre to maintain open space for landholdings in the rural service area.

In 1980, the comprehensive plan was updated: the USA was modified to include urban activity centers (UACs) and rural activity centers (RACs). The UACs were commercial and light-industrial districts in urbanized areas, while RACs were retail trade and light-industrial centers clustered around the Interstate 64/Interstate 75 interchanges. In 1996, the USA was expanded when 5300 acre of the RSA were acquired through the expansion area master plan (EAMP). This was controversial: this first major update to the comprehensive plan in over a decade was accompanied by arguments among residents about the future of Lexington and the Thoroughbred farms.

The EAMP included new concepts of impact fees, assessment districts, neighborhood design concepts, design overlays, mandatory greenways, major roadway improvements, storm water management, and open-space mitigation for the first time. It also included a draft of the rural land management plan, which included large-lot zoning and traffic-impact controls. A pre-zoning of the entire expansion area was refuted in the plan. A 50 acre minimum proposal was defeated. Discussion of this proposal appeared to stimulate the development of numerous 10 acre subdivisions in the RSAs.

Three years after the expansion was initiated, the RSA land management plan was adopted, which increased the minimum lot size in the agricultural rural zones to 40 acre. In 2000, a purchase of development rights plan was adopted, granting the city the power to purchase the development rights of existing farms; in 2001, $40 million was allocated to the plan from a $25 million local, $15 million state grant.

Climate
Lexington is in the northern periphery of the humid subtropical climate zone (Cfa), with hot, humid summers and moderately cold winters with occasional mild periods; it falls in USDA hardiness zone 6b. The city and the surrounding Bluegrass region have four distinct seasons that include cool plateau breezes; moderate nights in the summer; and no prolonged periods of heat, cold, rain, wind, or snow. The monthly daily average temperature ranges from 33.9 °F in January to 76.7 °F in July, while the annual mean temperature is 56.3 °F. On average, 25 days at or above 90 °F occur annually and 23 days per winter where the high is at or below freezing. Annual precipitation is 49.84 in, with the late spring and summer being slightly wetter; snowfall averages 14.5 in per season. Extreme temperatures range from −21 °F on January 24, 1963, to 108 °F on July 10 and 15, 1936.

Lexington is recognized as a high allergy area by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.

Demographics
The Lexington-Fayette Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) includes Bourbon, Clark, Fayette, Jessamine, Scott, and Woodford Counties. The MSA population is 516,811 as of the 2020 census.

The Lexington–Fayette–Richmond–Frankfort combined statistical area had a population of 747,919 in 2020. This includes the metro area and an additional seven counties.

2020
As of the 2020 census, there were 322,570 people, 129,784 households, and 74,761 families within the city. The population density was 1,137.3 PD/sqmi. The racial makeup of the city was 70.7% non-Hispanic White, 15.6% Black or African American, 0.3% Native American, 4.1% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, and 2.7% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race were 7.4% of the population.

The most common spoken language in Lexington is English, but there are approximately 196 languages from all parts of the world spoken in Lexington. The non-English language spoken by the largest group is Spanish followed by Swahili. Other more common non-English languages in the city are Arabic, Nepali, Japanese, French, Mandarin, Kinyarwanda, Korean and Portuguese. Local estimates drawn from English Language Learner enrollment in Fayette County Public Schools estimates that approximately 23% of the total Lexington population speaks a language other than English at home.

Of the 131,929 households reported in the 2019 American Community Survey, 52% were married couples living together, 15% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27% were non-families. 28.4% of households were home to children under the age of 18. The average household size was 2.37, and the average family size was 2.99. 31.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

In 2019, 20.9% of residents were under the age of 18, 14.2% were from 18 to 24, 28.6% from 25 to 44, 23.4% from 45 to 64, and 13.0% were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34.6 years. For every 100 females, there were 96.2 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $57,291 in 2019, slightly below the national average of $62,843, and for a family it was $53,264. Males living alone had a median income of $36,268 versus $30,811 for females. The per capita income for the city was $34,442. About 8.7% of families and 14.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 17.6% of those under the age of 18 and 9.4% of those ages 65 and older.

The table below illustrates the population growth of Fayette County since the first U.S. Census in 1790. Lexington city limits became coterminous with Fayette County in 1974.

Sources:
 * 1790 to 1960 census:
 * 1970 census:
 * 1980 census:
 * 1990 census:
 * 2000 to 2005 census:
 * 2006 census:

Economy

Lexington has one of the nation's most stable economies. Lexington describes itself as having "a fortified economy, strong in manufacturing, technology, and entrepreneurial support, benefiting from a diverse, balanced business base". The Lexington Metro Area had an unemployment rate of 3.7% in August 2015, lower than many cities of similar size.

The city is home to several large corporations. Sizable employment is generated by four Fortune 500 companies: Xerox (which acquired Affiliated Computer Services), Lexmark International, Lockheed-Martin, and IBM, employing 3,000, 2,800, 1,705, and 552, respectively. United Parcel Service, Trane, and Amazon.com, Inc. have large operations in the city, and Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky is within the Lexington CSA, located in adjoining Georgetown. A Jif peanut butter plant located in the city produces more peanut butter than any other factory in the world.

Notable corporate headquarters include Lexmark International, a manufacturer of printers and enterprise software; Link-Belt Construction Equipment, a designer and manufacturer of telescopic and lattice boom cranes; Big Ass Fans, a manufacturer of large ceiling fans and lighting fixtures for industrial, commercial, agricultural, and residential use; A&W Restaurants, a restaurant chain known for root beer; and Fazoli's, an Italian-American fast-food chain.

The city's largest employer, the University of Kentucky, employed 16,743 as of 2020.

Other sizable employers include the Lexington-Fayette County government and other hospital facilities. The Fayette County Public Schools employ 5,374, and the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government employs 2,699. Central Baptist Hospital, Saint Joseph Hospital, Saint Joseph East, and the Veterans Administration Hospital employ 7,000 persons in total.

Annual cultural events and fairs
June has two popular music festivals: Bluegrass and Broadway. The Festival of the Bluegrass, Kentucky's oldest bluegrass music festival, is in early June; it includes three stages for music and a "bluegrass music camp" for school children. For more than two decades, during the second and third weekends, UK Opera Theatre presents a Broadway medley "It's A Grand Night for Singing!"

Later in June, the Gay and Lesbian Services Organization hosts the Lexington Pride Festival, which celebrates pride of the LGBTQIA+ community and welcomes allies. The festival offers live music, crafts, food, and informational booths from diverse service organizations. Lexington Mayor Jim Gray, elected in 2010 and openly gay, proclaimed June 29, 2013, as Pride Day. Lexington has one of the highest concentrations of gay and lesbian couples in the United States for a city its size.

Area residents gather downtown for the Fourth of July festivities, which extend for several days. On July 3, the Gratz Park Historic District is transformed into an outdoor music hall, when the Patriotic Music Concert is held on the steps of Morrison Hall at Transylvania University. The Lexington Singers and the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra perform at this event. On the Fourth, events include a reading of the Declaration of Independence on the steps of the Old Courthouse, a 10K run, a parade, street vendors for wares and food, and fireworks. The Woodland Arts Fair, an outdoor art fair hosted by the Lexington Art League in the summer, is almost five decades old and attracts over 70,000 attendees.

"Southern Lights: Spectacular Sights on Holiday Nights", which takes place from November 18 to December 31, is held at the Kentucky Horse Park. It includes a 3 mi drive through the park, showcasing numerous displays, many in character with the horse industry and history of Lexington. The "Mini-Train Express", an indoor petting zoo featuring exotic animals, the International Museum of the Horse, an exhibit showcasing the Bluegrass Railway Club's model train, and Santa Claus are other major highlights.

Other events and fares include:
 * The Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra presents several annual concerts.
 * The Lexington Ballet Company performs their annual Nutcracker Ballet.
 * LexArts Gallery HOP is a seasonal event when the city's art galleries are open to the public on the third Friday of January, March, May, July, September, and November.

Historical structures and museums

Additional historic sites include:
 * Lexington Opera House

The University of Kentucky Art Museum is the premier art museum for Lexington and the only accredited museum in the region. Its collection of over 4000 objects ranges from Old Masters to Contemporary. It regularly hosts special exhibitions.

The local Woolworth's building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its significance as a site of protests during the Civil Rights Movement against segregation during the 1960s. Activists conducted sit-ins to gain integrated lunch service, full access to facilities, and more employment. However, in 2004, the building was demolished by its owner, and the area was paved for use as a parking lot until further development.

Pablo Eskobear, the American black bear that overdosed on cocaine that was dropped from smuggler Andrew C. Thornton II's airplane—an incident which inspired the 2023 movie Cocaine Bear—has been stuffed and can be visited at the Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall.

College athletics
The Kentucky Wildcats, the athletic program of the University of Kentucky, is Lexington's most popular sports entity. The school fields 22 varsity sports teams, most of which compete in the Southeastern Conference as a founding member. The men's basketball team is one of the winningest programs in NCAA history, having won eight national championships. The basketball program was also the first to reach 2000 wins.

Professional sports
Lexington is home to the Lexington Legends, a member of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, an independent MLB Partner league. The minor league team plays home games at The Ballpark at 207 Legends Lane. In 2020, the team lost MLB affiliation under a new plan by the MLB.

The city also hosts Lexington SC of third-division professional soccer league USL League One. The club was founded in 2021 and currently plays at Toyota Stadium on the campus of Georgetown College. In October 2023, Lexington SC announced it would be building a new stadium on their youth training ground off of Athens-Boonesboro Road. It will be open by 2024, with a capacity for 5,000 fans, with up to 11,000 possible.

Former professional sport teams based in Lexington were the Kentucky Thoroughblades, Lexington Men O' War, Lexington Bluegrass Bandits, Kentucky Horsemen, Bluegrass Warhorses, Bluegrass Stallions, Lexington Colts, and Lexington Counter Clocks.

Horse racing and equestrian events
The city is home to two horse-racing tracks, Keeneland and The Red Mile harness track. Keeneland, sporting live races in April and October, is steeped in tradition; little has changed since the track's opening in 1936. Keeneland hosted the 2015 Breeders' Cup, with the event's signature race, the Breeders' Cup Classic, won by Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. This track also has the world's largest Thoroughbred auction house; 19 Kentucky Derby winners, 21 Preakness Stakes winners, and 18 Belmont Stakes winners were purchased at Keeneland sales. Its most notable race is the Blue Grass Stakes, which is considered an important preparation for the Kentucky Derby. The Red Mile is the oldest horse racing track in the city and the second-oldest in the nation. It runs live harness races, in which horses pull two-wheeled carts called sulkies. The two tracks announced a partnership in 2014.

The Kentucky Horse Park, located along scenic Iron Works Pike in northern Fayette County, is a comparative latecomer to Lexington, opening in 1978. Although commonly known as a tourist attraction and museum, it is also a working horse farm with a farrier and famous retired horses such as 2003 Kentucky Derby winner Funny Cide. Since its opening in April 1978, the Kentucky Horse Park has hosted the Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event, which is one of the top-three annual equestrian eventing competitions in the world and is held immediately before the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville. In September and October 2010, Lexington was the first city outside of Europe to host the World Equestrian Games.

Other sports
Lexington is home to Roller Derby of Central Kentucky and Lexington Bike Polo League. In 2017, Lexington hosted the World Hardcourt Bike Polo Championship, the most competitive bike polo tournament in the world, at facilities in Coolavin Park. Two years prior the city hosted the North American Hardcourt Bike Polo Championship for teams from across Canada, Mexico, and the United States. In 2023, Roller Derby of Central Kentucky returned to competitive play at Central Bank Center after a three-year hiatus.

The Dirt Bowl is a long-standing local basketball tournament held by Lexington Parks and Recreation at Douglass Park. The league has been around since the early 1970s. Sports Illustrated covered it in 1983 and called it one of the premier summer leagues in the country at the time. The basketball courts at Douglass Park were originally dirt, giving the tournament its "Dirt Bowl" name. The courts have since been paved.

City parks and facilities

Lexington has over 100 parks, ranging in size from the 8719 ft2 Smith Street Park to the 659 acre Masterson Station Park. Many Lexington parks recently received improvements as part of a $25,183,270.63 investment from the American Rescue Plan Act. Lexington's parks include:
 * Five public golf courses at Kearney Hill Links, Lakeside, Meadowbrook, Tates Creek, and Picadome
 * Six dog parks at Jacobson, Masterson Station, Coldstream, Pleasant Ridge, Veteran's Park, and Wellington
 * Three public 18-hole disc golf courses at Shillito Park, Jacobson Park, and Veterans Park
 * A public skate park at Woodland Park, featuring 12000 sqft of "ramps, platforms, bowls, and pipes"
 * Triangle Park in the heart of downtown Lexington.
 * Gatton Park on the Town Branch, a $39 million 10-acre private park in the center of downtown, will open in 2025.

Natural areas
The city is home to Raven Run Nature Sanctuary, a 734 acre nature preserve along the Kentucky River Palisades.

The Arboretum is a 100 acre preserve adjacent to the University of Kentucky.

The city also plays host to the historic McConnell Springs, a 26 acre park within the industrial confines off Old Frankfort Pike.

Mayor
Lexington-Fayette elects a mayor on a nonpartisan basis every four years. The current mayor, Linda Gorton, is a registered Republican and is in her second term. She defeated former councilmember David Kloiber in the November 2022 General Election by a 71% to 14% margin. Gorton, 75, is eligible to run for one additional term in 2026. The mayor may serve up to three consecutive terms.

Urban County Council
The city's legislative branch is the 15-member Urban County Council. Twelve of the members represent specific districts and serve two-year terms; three are "at-large" members elected citywide and serve four-year terms. The at-large member receiving the highest number of votes in the general election automatically becomes the vice mayor, who acts as the presiding officer of the council when the mayor is absent. The council members as of 2024 are:

Government Meetings
Most Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government meetings are open to the public. Council meetings are held Thursdays at 6 p.m. at the LFUCG Government Center at 200 East Main Street.

Judicial
Lexington has three main active judicial courts in its downtown district. It is served by Fayette Circuit Court, Fayette District Court, and US District Court, Eastern District of Kentucky Lexington Division.

Education

According to the United States Census, of Lexington's population over the age of 25, 22.4% hold a bachelor's degree, 11.4% hold a master's degree, 3.1% hold a professional degree, and 2.6% hold a doctoral degree.

The city is served by the Fayette County Public Schools. The system currently consists of six district high schools, along with multiple smaller multidistrict high schools, 12 middle schools, one combined middle/high school, and 37 elementary schools, and is supplemented with many private schools. FCPS opened two new elementary schools in August 2016, and opened a new high school in August 2017. Fayette County Public Schools' Fiscal Year 2023 – 2024 general fund budget is $677,440,375.

The two traditional colleges are the University of Kentucky, which is the state's flagship public university, and Transylvania University, which is the state's oldest four-year university and the first university west of the Alleghenies.

Media

Lexington's largest daily circulating newspaper is the Lexington Herald-Leader. Business Lexington is a monthly business newspaper. The Chevy Chaser Magazine and Southsider Magazine are two community publications.

The region is also served by eight primary television stations, including WLEX, WKYT, WDKY, WTVQ, WLJC, WUPX, WKLE, WKON. The state's public television network, Kentucky Educational Television, is headquartered in Lexington and is one of the nation's largest public networks, reaching all 1.6 million television households in the state.

Highways

Interstate 75 runs north–south on the edge of Lexington. Interstate 64 runs east–west on the northern edge of the city. Lexington itself is at the confluence of US Route 25, US Route 27, US Route 60, US Route 68 and US Route 421.

Lexington suffers considerable traffic congestion for a city of its size due to the lack of freeways, the proximity of the University of Kentucky to downtown, and the substantial number of commuters from outlying towns. For traffic relief on northern New Circle Road, Citation Boulevard is planned.

Railroads

The Southern Railway, well into the 1960s, ran passenger trains through its Lexington station on a Cincinnati-Florida route: the Ponce de Leon and the Royal Palm. The last remnant of the Royal Palm left Lexington in 1970. Union Station, open from 1907 and demolished in March 1960, hosted the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway and the Louisville and Nashville. The C&O's Louisville-Ashland connector train to the company's George Washington ran until 1970.

Airport
The Blue Grass Airport is on the west side of Lexington on US Route 60. It has passenger flights by four carriers: Allegiant, American, Delta and United.

Modal characteristics
In 2019, 79.3% of working Lexingtonians commuted by driving alone, 9.3% carpooled, 2.0% used public transportation, and 3.0% walked. 1.9% of commuters used all other forms of transportation, including taxi, bicycle, and motorcycle. About 4.4% worked from home.

In 2015, 7.2 percent of city of Lexington households were without a car, which increased slightly to 7.4 percent in 2016. The national average was 8.7 percent in 2016. Lexington averaged 1.7 cars per household in 2016, compared to a national average of 1.8 per household.

Law enforcement
Primary law enforcement duties within Lexington-Fayette County are the responsibility of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government Division of Police. As of July 1, 2021, the Division of Police (also called Lexington Police Department) is authorized for 639 sworn police officers and 16 traffic safety officers. The Division of Police resulted from the merger of the Lexington Police Department with the Fayette County Patrol in 1974. The Fayette County Sheriff's Office is responsible for court service, including court security, prisoner transport, process and warrant service, and property tax collection. The 1974 merger also consolidated the office of city jailer into the office of county jailer, a constitutional position. In 1992 (effective 1993), the Kentucky General Assembly enabled a correctional services division to be established by ordinance, making employees civil-service employees rather than political appointees.

Fire protection
All fire/rescue protection within Lexington-Fayette County (with the exception of the Blue Grass Airport) is provided by the Lexington Fire Department. The current department was formed with the merger of the county and city fire departments in 1973. Lexington Fire Department is the largest single fire department in Kentucky with over 600 personnel and 24 individual fire stations broken into five districts (battalions).

Sister cities

 * 🇫🇷 Deauville, Calvados, Normandy, France (since 1957)
 * 🇮🇪 County Kildare, Leinster, Ireland (since 1984)
 * Newmarket, Suffolk, United Kingdom (since 2003)
 * 🇯🇵 Shinhidaka, Hokkaido, Japan (since 2006)
 * Shinhidaka was formed by a 2006 local government merger. One of the entities involved in the merger was Shizunai, which established a sister city relationship with Lexington in 1988.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Lexington, Kentucky


text:
Talk:Sugar beet

Who was the biggest producer?
"... By 1837, France was the largest sugar beet producer in the world, a position it continued to hold in the world in 2010. By 1837, there were 542 factories in France, producing 35,000 tonnes of sugar. By 1880, Germany became the largest sugar beet to sugar producer in the world.[7]..."

Do you mean France was the biggest producer of the sugar beet as a crop while Germany had the largest processed sugar output from its factories? Rewriting of this sentence may do good to make it clear. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.30.143.204 (talk) 14:59, 11 August 2013 (UTC)

Excuse me?
Alright, guys, decent article but what is with this line:

Too much chemistry
Shimmin, you've rewritten it a lot and it is now probably too specialised. We are not here to write a text bok on the chemistry of sugar beet processing. You have also removed the sense of Milk of lime and Carbon Dioxide being added simultaneously to the raw juice which is the case in most UK and USA processing. GraemeLeggett 08:04, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * My handbook indicates a residence time of 5-15 minutes in two liming stages before the first carbonation. As for the chemistry, I don't feel that it is any more specialized than other technical info that was here before I got here (residence time in the diffuser, names and geometries of specific versions of the diffusion stage ...), and I do feel the mention of what compounds the carbonatation process knocks out adds value to the interested, and is brief enough that the disinterested can gloss onward.  But as always, if you disagree, be bold. Shimmin 12:00, Apr 12, 2005 (UTC)

 * Sounds like either the DDS or RT liming schemes, see Carbonatation where the chemistry would be better served. GraemeLeggett 12:30, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

"Europe and Ukraine"???
Ukraine is a country in Europe, the sentence makes no sense. Like saying "USA and California". /Grillo 10:00, 9 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Agree, that does not make sense at all. I guess Europe meant to be EU. Solarapex 17:24, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

Can you cook and eat them?
Can you cook and eat sugar beets? Or do they not taste good? Are they sweeter then regular beets? 71.199.123.24 06:41, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

 * They cook into a brownish green/black mush that you can cook with fresh water into Molasses and then into syrup and brown sugar that will crystallize on the rim. It will stink like hell!!  And molasses and the homemade syrup contain bitter substances that are not everyone's cup of tea.  --76.97.245.5 (talk) 07:40, 8 February 2009 (UTC)
 * My grandmother was born in what's now Ukraine, near Kyiv, and was brought to the US as a baby. When I was young, she told me that she'd learned from her Grandmother that the family had lived in Sugar Beet country, and that during the harvest, they'd bake the beets and eat them as a desert as they came out with a pudding-like texture.  JDZeff (talk) 19:34, 8 March 2023 (UTC)

 * Must be a different variety from the ones we get in the UK. I chop them up, boil them for 15 minutes and eat them as a vegetable. Although they look rather like parsnips they aren't floury but have a firm flesh like beetroot. They taste like beetroot too but are much sweeter. They don't turn into a mush and don't smell at all. Maybe they would if I cooked them a lot longer. However, while the current crop around here is very tasty, they can be tough and fibrous. That may depend on the variety or whether they have completed their growing season. See also http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Beta+vulgaris+altissima Brumel (talk) 09:48, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Subsidies in the EU
There should be something about the subsidies of sugar beet production in the EU. They were either severely curtailed, or ended, such that a decision was taken in Ireland to end the entire sugar beet production in the country in 2006.

So sad, Siucra (Irish sugar brand omnipresent in Ireland, and "sugar" in the Irish language) will just be imported now. More pollution from shipping goods from abroad. Woohoo!

zoney ♣ talk 22:24, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

 * Well it's a trade-off - less pollution form the more energy intensive processing of sugar beet cf sugar cane; more money to third world producers, less agricultural subsidies paid out by EU taxpayers etc... Lisiate 01:23, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

 * Sugar beet processing is extremely fuel efficient; energy costs dictate this. Beet is important as a root crop in a arable rotation cycle and the byproducts can be used as animal feed. Lime waste is used to improve soils. Farm subsidies are a complex issue but have their use. GraemeLeggett 08:51, 1 September 2006 (UTC)
 * A similar thing happened in Canada. Many beet piling stations are now converted to lots to build manufactured homes, and most of the plants dismantaled for scrapmetal.-JWGreen 04:54, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

Sugarbeet, use as cattle feed
Use of sugarbeet pulp as cattle feed is mentioned. I would like to know if whole beet is used as cattle feed. What is the experience in using whole beet as cattle feed. Pros and cones of using whole beet as cattle feed. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 61.8.137.178 (talk) 11:42, 19 February 2007 (UTC).

Sugar Beets Vs Suger Cane
Which is a better crop in terms of work needed to cultivate to suger output? I hope thats sensical.--Doom Child 01:33, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

 * You can't grow cane in the same locations as beets so the question doesn't make all that much sense. 76.97.245.5 (talk) 07:49, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Last paragraph - names
I recommend against including the names of heads of USDA research stations, as they may be temporary and reassigned. There are not links to the stations themselves.--Parkwells (talk) 19:11, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Use in fertilisers
I have seen two types of liquid plant foods that contain sugar beet as an ingredient. Anybody got any info on this that can go in the article? Campestre (talk) 19:11, 24 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I can't find any definitive source, but I am guessing that the fertilizer uses byproducts of the sugar processing as a base for the fertilizer. -JWGreen (talk) 21:03, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

 * See Vinasse 76.97.245.5 (talk) 07:55, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Statement too localized
This statement should be reworded or removed. ''In the Netherlands this period is known as "de bietencampagne", a time to be careful when driving local roads in the area the beets are grown. The reason for this is the naturally high clay content of the soil, causing slippery roads when soil falls from the trailers during transport.'' In Germany this period is known as Zuckerrübenkampagne requires just as careful driving as in the Netherlands because the roads don't get any less slippery than there. I bet other European nations have terms for the period in their own languages and dirty roads are not that uncommon with this type of crop. We could rephrase it more generally and leave out the Dutch name or add a list of local names in various languages at the bottom.
 * Comments or suggestions, please 76.97.245.5 (talk) 07:20, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Picture of the Shropshire Sugar Beet Factory
I would recommned this be removed as it stopped production some years ago and has now been demolished —Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.144.184.49 (talk) 20:49, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Road De-Icing?
Should a section be added on the use of Sugar Beet syrup to de-ice roads? Aristotle28 (talk) 01:25, 31 May 2010 (UTC)

Beet sugar vs cane sugar: taste and cooking properties
I have heard that cane sugar tastes different to some people and has different properties when caramelizing or baking. A quick google turns up , although that's not a primary source. Will someone who knows the facts add them to the article? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.167.150.33 (talk) 21:03, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

 * How is http://www.sfgate.com/recipes/article/SUGAR-SUGAR-Cane-and-beet-share-the-same-2939081.php for a source? 207.237.218.17 (talk) 07:05, 24 June 2012 (UTC)

Monsanto Roundup
There's a whole section in the article called "Glyphosate". In practice, this means Monsanto's Roundup herbicide.
 * False statement. Glyphosate is now off patent and is made by hundreds of companies.Jytdog (talk) 21:14, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

Monsanto also commercializes genetically modified sugar beets, resistant to their Roundup herbicide. The section gives the impression genetically modified sugar beets requires less herbicide (Glyphosate). Articles dispute this:

 * The most striking finding is that GM crops have been responsible for an increase of 383 million pounds of herbicide use in the U.S. over the first 13 years of commercial use of GM crops (1996-2008).report gm pesticide use

I'm wondering whether one could take a close look at the "Glyphosate" section, and find out whether this is a mere description of the facts, or a company PR exercise. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.225.212.147 (talk) 08:52, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Soil
The article states that sugar beets need a lot of "plant food". I suppose that means fertilizer (but which kind? e.g. more or less rich in potassium?), but the wording is strange... it doesn't seem like such a good idea to copy the text verbatim from Rolph's book. And the text is somewhat self-contradictory, listing the property of retaining a great deal of moisture along the "most important requirement" (shouldn't that be "requirements", looking at the structure of the sentence?), and then stating that "the physical character is of secondary importance". Don't you think that a property of retaining a great deal of moisture is part of the physical character of a soil? Icek (talk) 19:19, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Monsanto as a source?!
According to the rules of Wikipedia, I don't see how monsanto.com can be used as a reliable source of information? (or any other company for that manner)

"most reliable sources are: peer-reviewed journals; books published by university presses; university-level textbooks; magazines, journals, and books published by respected publishing houses; and mainstream newspapers" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability#Reliable_sources

 * A company's website is often the best source of information about a given product especially if it is simple factual information. There is no bar to using it for that sort of thing.  For more elaborate, evaluative statements, still OK but is best balanced by other sources.  The main point is that a normal sane person who said "really?" or "i would like to know more about that" can go to the source to verify or learn more.. and that should be a source that a normal, sane person would find a useful source of information.  Again, marketing material saying how great a product would not be credible, but simple factual information would be, to most people.Jytdog (talk) 21:20, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

So, should more or all of the monsanto references be removed or replaced with reliable sources? I think the one from Michigan Sugar Company cannot be reliable either?
 * You have already removed them. Bad form to remove them and then ask if it is OK.  By the way in general if you can find better (for example, more believable, more objective, more detailed) sources than ones that are already on the page you are always free to add them and even to replace poorer sources with better ones.Jytdog (talk) 21:20, 1 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Yes, I removed some but not all. I removed the ones that were blatantly (potentially) biased. Perhaps more should go, but I understand your point above, although apart from facts like we sell xyz for xx$, company websites very quickly start praising their product or service (as one would naturally expect). Plmoknqwerty (talk) 10:53, 2 November 2012 (UTC)

Interested to know what others think? Plmoknqwerty (talk) 13:56, 1 November 2012 (UTC)
 * What specific issue do you have with these sources?--Asher196 (talk) 15:11, 1 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Companies and even government linked agencies tend to be propagandist and therefore not a reliable source. Plmoknqwerty (talk) 10:53, 2 November 2012 (UTC)

 * I went through the article and reviewed sourcing.  Some of it was indeed bad IMO.  Fixed some.  Needs more work.Jytdog (talk) 04:07, 2 November 2012 (UTC)
 * The issue is that it does not follow the rules of Wikipedia. I think the rules are there to stop companies promoting themselves and providing biased information. Unfortunately, that is what this article does to quite a large extent. Even government agencies nowadays are highly influenced by multinational companies and therefore them as a reliable source is also questionable. Plmoknqwerty (talk) 10:53, 2 November 2012 (UTC)

Plant origins
Where did sugar beets originate from? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.160.225.169 (talk) 11:18, 6 April 2013 (UTC)

Misleading Map
The map image "Sugar beet output in 2009" is misleading. It appears to indicate that the US sugar beet production is centered around the East Coast, although it is in fact predominately Northern. The map should be corrected or removed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by SpareShoes (talk • contribs) 03:35, 15 October 2013 (UTC)
 * There is only one map this one. It shows no sugar beet production on the East coast -- it is all on the upper great plains.  Not sure what your objection is.... Jytdog (talk) 10:05, 15 October 2013 (UTC)

Unique climate ?
The fact that this plant is successfully grown in Wisconsin, California, England, Poland and Turkey surely makes the statement that it requires a "unique climate" to be completely nonsense. It has some specific climatic requirements, but those criteria can be met with a wide range of climate types  and not some specific "unique" climate. Tallewang (talk) 20:36, 6 December 2013 (UTC)

what is this?
In the History|United States section, there is this phrase "...the foul tasting free sugar from Asia". What does this refer to? What does "free" mean? 101.117.12.165 (talk) 06:09, 13 June 2014 (UTC)
 * that is a great question - thanks for asking! The source provided explains that "Free sugar" was made from sugar cane grown without slavery (kind of like we talk about "Fair trade coffee" and the like today).  The source also says that it tasted "awful".  The source doesn't say why.  I found this ref (http://www.cambridge.org/us/books/kiple/sugar.htm) that says that at that time, sugar was often contaminated by sea water during long ocean voyages;  could also be because it was not fully refined and still had molasses in it.  Not clear why. Jytdog (talk) 09:12, 13 June 2014 (UTC)

Material removed
The following discussion of Glyphosate was removed with the edit summary "sources are neither scientific nor reliable. pls discuss on Talk page if you feel strongly per WP:BRD."
 * The substance has been marketed as harmless, but scientists have described the long term toxicity of Glyphosate to be "worse than that of DDT" and several non-industry studies indicate this severity . The industrial claim that glyphosate is non-bioaccumulative is contradicted but the fact that glyphosate is found in Mother's milk Studies showing glyphosate as relatively safe have all been short term studies, but this short term study indicate altered reproductivity in mammals . Still other publications appear as advertising disguised as science.

The blanket dismissal of all the sources as unscientific is not justified, and I've just used one of them as an addition to the Glyphosate page. It is both reliable and scientific, and gets to the heart of a serious issue here in wikipedia and elsewhere, that any criticism of Glyphosate is routinely suppressed. Unfortunately, because of the vigorous suppression at Glyphosate, it is not possible to point to that page for further information. I agree that some of the sources are secondary, and that in an ideal world a lengthy discussion of Glyphosate would not belong on the Sugar beet page, but a total revert is not justified.

Sminthopsis84 (talk) 15:41, 3 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Hi, you seem to be very interested in glyphosate! Please know that any information you add added to wikipedia about health, needs to be supported by sources that comply with our guideline for health-related sources: WP:MEDRS. I encourage you to read that guideline, since you are defending these edits that do not comply with it.
 * Your source 1 is a radio segment (audio) from Food Integrity Now which is anti-GMO activist site. the segment is an interview with Don Huber, whose research is not accepted in the mainstream scientific community.  This is not a reliable source under WP:RS and MEDRS.
 * source 2 is a) WP:PRIMARY which is the key problem under both WP:RS and more so under WP:MEDRS and b) it was rejected by the scientific community
 * Source 3 has been reviewed and is also not a reliable source, see discussion here
 * Source 4 is http://sustainablepulse.com/ which is not a reliable source per WP:MEDRS
 * source 5 is WP:PRIMARY which is the key problem under WP:RS and more so under WP:MEDRS
 * Source 6 is a valid source. Your The content, " Still other publications appear as advertising disguised as science." is reverted because it violates the policy, WP:OR Jytdog (talk) 23:34, 3 October 2014 (UTC) (correct attributions per my comment below Jytdog (talk) 17:47, 4 October 2014 (UTC))
 * note, correcting text above. i assumed that  was the one who added the content he/she is defending, but it was added by someone else in this dif.  i corrected my comment above. my apologies! Jytdog (talk) 17:47, 4 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Hello, being anti GMO is accepted beyond fringe. Also, though it is not easy to find realiably sourced information about Don Huber, there are suggestions that he has some notability.  GMO is not essential.  It is a further expansion of industrial farming, and being against that is sensible.  Mainstream is usually the primary topic, but opposing that alone does not equate fringe theory or reflect notability.  It's not even scientific.  GMO practice is the leading excuse for suicide in the world.  I don't see any GMO trees in the barren desert, but I've seen non GMO ones, only that humans destroy them again.  GMO crop areas are producing mega bugs.  Anyone using the three sisters?  Nah.  They are combine harvesting and asking where the jobs are at.  Being anti GMO is sensible.  ~ R.T.G 22:27, 4 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Mainstream science says that currently marketed food from GMOs is as safe as food from conventional or organic sources. A stance that says they are not is by definition WP:FRINGE (as that is defined in Wikipedia)  Nobody is saying GMOs are essential.   Huber was an accomplished scientist before he retired and went off the deepend with these "electon microscope organisms".  tinfoil hat stuff as of today.  Jytdog (talk) 23:22, 4 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Yes, and such statements are why we do not rely on the primary source. They could have said, "We've done nothing with this GMO but create misery and profits, though we swore we'd fix the whole world."  And totally left it with that.  Nobody is ringing in their joy at GMO who isn't getting money from it, or just rings in their joy at science anyway, religiously.  In the countries it is most prolific, outside the US granted, they are making it illegal it is so good.  But now that's way off topic.  I just wanted to see a little bit more than labelling, to support why the source was fringe or whatever.  I just want to point out that being anti-GMO has nothing to do with the reliability of a source.  Only the misled want to eat plastic.  Let's see anti-GMO as political, and establish the fringe nature with something else.  I could fill this page with reasonable arguments about GMOs, so let's see something more concrete, or, like it or not, the guys say actually has merit, even if it is only a small little merit that some don't understand.  Antithesis is part of thesis when it's done properly.  Maybe I should try and get involved in the content debate, but I just want to see better than, "They don't like GMOs, therefore are not scientific".  The guy is an emeritus at one of the better known unis.  If he was an idiot, they'd sack him.  I can't find a lot in support of Huber, but I can't find much saying that he's totally off base either.  And I expect it to be established that he is fringe, but not simply by pointing out he is against GMOs.  ~ R.T.G 07:59, 5 October 2014 (UTC)

Overcoverage
What area or areas do you think are overcovered? AIR corn (talk) 22:06, 9 March 2016 (UTC)
 * The section "Culture" seems to only reference US examples. → Aza Toth 16:09, 10 March 2016 (UTC)

Article neglects its import in Asian Far East...
Both Japan and Korean are large producers. Apparently up to 75% of Japanese Sugar is produced from Sugar Beets. 82.30.84.177 (talk) 11:02, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
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Creation
Creation was tagged in 2014, with a note that there is a discussion here. I see no discussion? Is there one here? What is the problem? If none, can tag be removed? Telecine Guy (talk) 02:07, 29 April 2019 (UTC)

 * Removed. — Spike  Toronto  02:37, 21 April 2021 (UTC)

Beta Vulgaris v.vulgaris?
Both the Manglewurzel and Sugar Beet claim this as their full name, but the intro to manglewurzel indicates they are distinct. Can someone please clarify this?
 * The full name of Sugar beet is "Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris Altissima Group". The full name of Mangelwurzel is "Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris Crassa Group". Both are different cultivars of the subsp. vulgaris.. Kind regards, --Thiotrix (talk) 16:58, 1 June 2019 (UTC)

Ukraine?
By the 1850s, sugar beet production had reached Russia and Ukraine. This was made possible by the protection of the sugar beet industry by bounties, or subsidies, paid to beet sugar producers upon the export of their sugar by their respective governments

Totally misleading PC crap. Effective 1850s, Ukraine IS Russia. More, it does not have any separate "government". — Preceding unsigned comment added by Антон васильков (talk • contribs) 19:44, 19 June 2019 (UTC)

Move section about producing sugar from sugar beets
I plan to create a page called Beet sugar factory. It would be the logical place for the whole section about producing sugar from sugar beets. This also goes for the by-products that are made in such a sugar factory. However, I'll first update the section as it is on this page.Grieg2 (talk) 20:18, 11 January 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Sugar beet