Jean Ritchie memorial highway sign to mark Perry County roots

A stretch of Kentucky Route 7 in Perry County now bears Jean Ritchie’s name, putting one of the county’s most recognizable native daughters in view for drivers heading through the Viper area and beyond. The roadside marker turned a local tribute into a daily reminder that Perry County’s cultural history still lives on the roads people travel every day.

Kentucky Senate Joint Resolution 11 designated mile points 1 through 7 of KY-7 in Perry County as the Jean Ritchie Memorial Highway and directed the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet to erect appropriate signage within 30 days of the resolution’s effective date. The bill was introduced in the Kentucky Senate on Jan. 6, 2026, and referred to Transportation on Jan. 13, 2026.

The designation matches the life story of a woman whose ties to Perry County ran deep. Jean Ritchie was born Dec. 8, 1922, in Viper, the youngest of 14 children. She attended Perry County High School and Cumberland College, then graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1946 with a degree in social work and Phi Beta Kappa honors. After college, she moved to New York City and worked as a social worker at Henry Street Settlement before marrying photographer George Pickow in 1950. The couple had two sons, Peter and Jonathan. By 1951, Ritchie had shifted into a full-time career as a singer, folk song collector and songwriter.

Her reach went far beyond Perry County, but the county remained central to her identity. The National Endowment for the Arts describes Ritchie as a significant musician, songwriter, cultural activist and chronicler of the Cumberland Mountains. Library of Congress materials also note her Viper birthplace, her place in a singing family, and her work at Henry Street Settlement in New York City. Smithsonian Folkways credits her with helping resurrect the Appalachian dulcimer, adding another layer to the legacy now marked along KY-7.

For Perry County, the highway sign does more than honor a famous name. It puts Ritchie’s story into the everyday landscape, where residents, students, churchgoers and visitors can see it for themselves. It also gives younger generations a prompt to ask who Jean Ritchie was and why her music still matters here. The sign makes a public claim that Perry County’s memory includes not just the place she came from, but the songs, families and traditions she carried far beyond eastern Kentucky.