[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 151 (Tuesday, September 16, 2025)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E862-E863]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           RECOGNIZING THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF DIXIE DEMUTH

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. MORGAN McGARVEY

                              of kentucky

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 16, 2025

  Mr. McGARVEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor and celebrate the 
legacy and remarkable life of a Louisville hometown hero, Dixie Demuth, 
who fought for equality for women in Kentucky and left a permanent mark 
on our city and commonwealth.
  Born in 1917 in the famous Samuels House in Samuels, Kentucky, Dixie 
moved to Louisville with her mother in 1933 at the height of the Great 
Depression. From an early age, she worked in restaurants and bars, 
learning the trade in popular downtown spots until she opened her own 
place on 5th Street in Louisville. She called it Dixie's Elbow Room. 
Although Dixie was allowed to own and run a bar, a two-hundred-year-old 
Kentucky law prohibited women from working as bartenders or even 
sitting at bars. Dixie decided that just

[[Page E863]]

wasn't right, and, in 1968, she hired her very first woman bartender 
and served a woman seated at her bar--her own adult daughter, in fact.
  The Kentucky Alcohol Beverage Control Board came down hard and fast, 
incensed not only that she was breaking the law but also that she 
openly advertised her rulebreaking in the hope that other bar owners 
would join her fight, but no one did. Though the ABC shut her down and 
took her liquor license, Dixie did not give up the fight. Found guilty 
of violating the antiquated state law, Dixie appealed her sentence and 
brought her case to the Kentucky Court of Appeals, who decided in her 
favor in 1972, calling the law ``invidious and arbitrary.'' Her quiet 
revolution behind the counter became a landmark victory for women's 
rights in the commonwealth and across the country.
  At 100 years old, when asked why she decided to take her bold stand, 
Dixie remembered: ``I said this is ridiculous, I'm going to change 
that, so I did.'' Dixie died in 2020 at the age of 102, but her legacy 
lives on. In 2023, she was inducted into the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of 
Fame, which recognizes sacrifice and determination in the bourbon 
industry. Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg recently unveiled a new 
historical marker, part of the Louisville Metro Historical Marker 
Program, placed where her bar once stood, ensuring that future 
generations will learn about Dixie's fight and victory.
  As a co-chair of the Congressional Bourbon Caucus, and as a proud son 
of Louisville, I am grateful for the path Dixie paved for the bourbon 
industry and the many women who work in it. Mr. Speaker, I ask the 
House of Representatives to join me in honoring the life and legacy of 
Dixie Demuth, as well as to celebrate the unveiling of the historical 
marker that enshrines her in our city's history.

                          ____________________