An estate sale featuring the personal belongings of Wendell Ford and his late wife, Ruby Jean Neel Ford, will take place next week, with organizers expecting interest from both local residents and collectors across the state.
The tag sale will run Wednesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Ford family home, located at 2017 Fieldcrest Drive in Owensboro.
Samuel Rafferty, who is assisting with the sale alongside Donna Mitchell of Black Sheep Antiques, said the event offers a rare opportunity to purchase items connected to one of Kentucky’s most prominent political figures.
“There’s all kinds of political memorabilia,” Rafferty said. “There’s awards with his name on it, desk accessories, pins, cufflinks, tie tacks — all kinds of things.”
Rafferty said the collection spans decades of Ford’s public service, along with personal items from the household.
“There’s pictures with him with Bill Clinton,” he said. “There’s books — some Kentucky history, some on the papers of Wendell Ford. There’s just so much of it, it’s overwhelming.”
In addition to political items, the sale will include furniture, antiques, and household goods typical of a large estate.
“There’s a baby grand piano, all kinds of household furnishings, prints, vintage clothes,” Rafferty said. “There’s things from a dollar all the way up.”
Items from Mrs. Ford’s collection will also be available, including handmade needlework and costume jewelry.
“Mrs. Ford made a lot of needlework — needlepoint, crochet, all kinds of things that she made,” Ridley said.
Rafferty said the team is expanding its advertising reach beyond Owensboro to attract buyers from across Kentucky, particularly in areas where Ford built long-standing relationships.
“We’re boosting the ad to reach Lexington, Louisville — places where he had a lot of friends or people that knew him,” he said.
The sale is being conducted as a tag sale, meaning all items are individually priced rather than auctioned.
Rafferty said he and Mitchell were honored to be selected by the Ford family to manage the sale, noting the scale and historical significance of the collection.
“We were honored to do this,” he said. “They had a lot of choices, but there was just too much here to move somewhere else.”
While many historically significant items have already been retained by the family or donated to local institutions, Rafferty said there are still numerous unique pieces available to the public.
“The most interesting things, like things with him with Kennedy, the family either kept or went to the museum,” he said. “But there’s still a lot here that would be interesting to collectors or anyone.”
Steve Ford, the senator’s son, said sorting through the home has revealed just how much history was preserved over the years.
“They were both Depression babies, so they didn’t throw anything away,” Ford said. “They just put it in the drawer, in the attic, or in the garage and moved on to the next thing.”
Ford said the collection reflects not only his father’s decades in public service, but also family history stretching back generations.
“It’s kind of a conglomeration of all those things,” he said.
As the family prepared for the sale, Ford said it became clear that keeping everything simply wasn’t possible.
“It’s kind of tough,” he said. “It’s impossible to keep it all. Lots of things mean things to you, but there’s lots of things that we had not even seen until we started going through things.”
The items span Ford’s early involvement in the Jaycees through his rise in state politics and 24 years in the U.S. Senate, along with mementos from international travel and major historical moments.
“There’s things from the ’50s when he was highly involved in the Jaycees,” Ford said. “Then you move into local politics … and then 24 years in the United States Senate. There’s just a lot of things.”
He added that going through the home has offered a deeper look into his parents’ lives.
“It’s just like reading their life story,” Ford said.
Wendell Ford, a native of Owensboro, served Kentucky in multiple elected roles over a decades-long career, including as a state representative, lieutenant governor, governor, and U.S. senator. Known for his bipartisan approach, he was widely respected at both the state and national levels before retiring from the Senate in 1998. He died in 2015. Ruby Jean Neel Ford died in October 2025.
Rafferty said that legacy is reflected in the variety of items available.
“It doesn’t really matter which party you are,” he said. “There’s just things that are political that are interesting for anybody to collect.”
Photos and additional details about the sale are available through the, as well as through associated social media pages.
