Charlotte Deupree grew up in Daytona Beach, Fla., but you might say her heart and hats are in Kentucky – especially once Derby season hits.
The Fort Wright, Ky., 70-something, said she has been a fan of the Derby since she and her sister moved to the Commonwealth. She and her twin sister Lorraine Clay went to Duke University where they met two gentlemen who were from Kentucky. Her sister married a man whose family owned several famous horse farms.
Clay lives in Mt. Sterling, Ky., about 100 miles from her sister. Deupree said the two of them never miss the Derby and have been going for nearly 12 years now. And no Derby is complete without their hats. Every year is a competition for the prettiest hat between the two siblings.
"You don’t go sit in a box without a beautiful hat," said Deupree about getting a new hat each year for the Derby. "[I was] thrilled to always have a new hat for the Derby."
Both sisters tend to like big hats she says. But it doesn’t matter to them as long as they are full of feathers and other goodies.
"I love feathers and sparkles and ruffles," the Northern Kentuckian said of her hat collection that she estimates being about 20-30 hats.
Before the Cincinnati-based hat designer Ruth Kropfeld moved her business out of state, Deupree said she would visit her for all of her hats. She would buy her suit first and then take it in. Now she goes to local Fort Mitchell dress and hat store Miss Martha on Dixie Highway.
Deupree, who was a professional model for 30 years in Cincinnati, says that she likes to dress the part and wear a different-looking hat every year. The hat must have "softness, bows, bangles—something a hat lover would have on her head for the Derby."
The hat lover has donated her hats to her son’s law firm for all of his secretaries to wear on this year’s Secretary’s Day. The secretaries went to lunch wearing her hats. What a sight it was to see all of those ladies, all in her hats for the day, she said.
