Huffington Magazine Issue 61 | Page 65

KENTUCKY’S KING they’d just grow back. His daughter, Martha Alls, now 71, recalls watching his head shake violently from tremors during Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners. Harding, who would develop a fatal stomach cancer, knew he had company among his fellow workers. He kept a record of 50 other workers who were either dying or had died of cancer. An internal memo from the plant revealed that management kept its own death list in secret. In 1971, the plant fired a very sick Harding; he was denied workers’ compensation, pension, and health insurance. But Harding continued to speak out against the plant and became a minor celebrity with the anti-