Daugherty Honored with a Quilt of Valor

Photo by Eugenia Jones Ninety-eight year old Elisha Daugherty of Pine Knot is pictured receiving a Quilt of Valor and pillow from Palliative Care nurse, Erica Roberts and Dr. Nina Booth. The quilts are presented as expressions of love, warmth, healing, and thanks to military veterans.

By Eugenia Jones
eugenia@highland.net
On August 19, 2022, surrounded
by family and friends
at his home in Pine Knot, KY,
ninety-eight year old Elisha
Elbert Daugherty was presented
with a Quilt of Valor. The
Quilts of Valor are presented
through a national organization
honoring veterans with
presentations of beautiful quilts
as warm gestures of love, comfort,
healing, and thanks to veterans
for their service.
Born on June 2, 1924,
Daugherty was always a hard
worker. He grew up working
in his father’s sawmill and later
worked at the Oneida Airport.
For a time, Daugherty operated
all types of heavy equipment
at his brother’s (Thomas)
excavating business. In 1958,
he went to Cincinnati, Ohio
where he worked as a mechanical
contractor. On weekends,
Daugherty journeyed back
home to McCreary County to be with his late wife of fiftythree
years, Mattie Hamby
Daugherty, and the couple’s
six children. Together on the
weekends, the family tended
their twenty-six acre farm.
In 1973, Daugherty retired
and returned home to continue
working the farm, often
plowing gardens for people
in the summertime and operating
his snow plow in the
wintertime.
Daugherty loved spending
time with family, building
his own camper and taking
the family on many hunting
expeditions. His love of
hunting was intense and led
him to raise all types of AKC
registered hunting beagles.
Daugherty had his own kennels
where he trained the
dogs. He also trained potential
hunters in the techniques
of the sport.
Serving as a Medic in the
Medical Corp in the early
1940s, Daugherty was a Private,
1st Class in the Army.
He was stationed in Ireland,
Germany, and England. He
still remembers going into
blackout mode, the bomb
shelters, and victims of war.
Despite the horrors of war,
Daugherty cherished the
friendships he forged during
his military service.
Daugherty was once honored
to meet and speak to
General Patton. General
Patton, who was visiting the
sick and wounded, stopped
Daugherty in the medical
ward.
“How are you, soldier?”
Patton asked. “You’re doing
a great job. We’re going to
win this war. Aren’t we, soldier?”
Daugherty remembers
General Patton as being very
nice, but noted the general
continuously scanned the
room and nervously tapped
his holster.
At ninety-eight years old,
Daugherty still loves to get
“dressed up” each day. He
enjoys visiting with people,
telling jokes, and eating
home cooking. He is a fan
of bluegrass and gospel music
and still dances as he did
when he was younger. He
also enjoys watching the
birds that come to eat from
the birdfeeders outside his
window.
Merriam-Webster defines
valor as strength of mind or
spirit that enables a person
to encounter danger with
firmness: personal bravery.
Daugherty’s history of hard
work, military service, and
facing each day with a joke
or smile on his face certainly
makes him worthy of the
Quilt of Valor. It is a fitting
honor, indeed.