Cynthiana native Benton Peterson Swinford, the city's only female attorney for many years, was born in 1901 to attorney Hanson Peterson and Mary Jouett Peterson. After graduation from the University of Kentucky, where she was a member of the Mortar Board and Kappa Kappa Gamma, she practiced law with her father for two years in Cynthiana. She married Mac Swinford in 1927, and the couple had five children: Mary Jouett Reed, John Swinford, Sarah Kinney, Alice Kolbe, and Ann Gregg Dunn. Benton was the first woman elected to the Cynthiana School Board and the Harrison County School Board. She was a leader in the drive to merge city and county schools and to integrate the local school system. She died in 1995. (Courtesy of Sarah Kinney.)