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-