Kenneth “Butch” Whitaker of Louisville, Kentucky has seen a lot over his lifetime. Despite his age, Whitaker stays very active, finding time to enjoy his hobby/passion of fixing up old cars, and keeping tabs on his ever-growing family. Whitaker has three kids, six grandkids and eight great-grandchildren, all of whom keep him on his toes.
Whitaker finds that staying busy and active keeps him young at heart. “I’m a workaholic, I think that’s what helped me to get through the trauma that I’ve been through,” he said.
Butch has worked on classic cars most of his life, and owned Butch’s Rod Shop in Brooks, Kentucky for close to 30 years before retiring in 2008 at the age of 62. In 2011, he lost his wife, Beverly Ann Whitaker. “We started dating in 1963, when we were teenagers. We were married for 47 years. I miss her.”
Despite experiencing one of the harshest losses life can throw at a person, Whitaker was able to maintain a sense of humor and drive that keeps him going today, to the point of getting him back into working on cars regularly with his family and friends. “After I lost my wife, I went and bought a motorcycle. Why? I thought it would help me to go and be with my wife if I wrecked it. Well, that didn’t work so I thought, okay, it’s probably going to make me a vegetable where my kids have to wipe my butt, so I sold the motorcycle and went back to building cars. It ended up being one of the smartest things I did, I enjoyed it. I have my oldest son working for me, my brother-in-law works with me, and we work every day.”
This crew, jokingly referred to as his “fan club,” are part of the group that helped maintain his spirits while he was in the hospital. “I have guys coming by here every day to help out with the work, we’re all older car guys. If it weren’t for them, I don’t know if I would’ve made it. You don’t know until you get real bad, how good your family and friends are when you need them.”
Of all the cars he’s worked on, Whitaker’s favorite car that he owned and worked on was a ‘61 Chevy Impala bubble top. He doesn’t keep the cars he works on, with the exception of a ‘56 hotrod and a car he built in his wife’s memory, which he’ll never sell. He’s also a Navy veteran who served in Vietnam.
On the afternoon of May 7, 2024, Whitaker was working in his shop on one of his cars when a small fire broke out. “I was doing something really stupid in my shop. I knew better, but there was a can of lacquer thinner on a workbench that I’d forgotten about. There wasn’t much in it, but I guess there was enough. I was welding something and a spark jumped into the can. It wasn’t that bad of a fire, but I still needed to get it out of the shop because of all the cars I had in there. Problem is, once I picked the can up, the bottom of it had melted out so the fire and the flame came out and got all over me. I dropped the can because I knew I had to get it and myself out of the garage, to put the fire out.”
“So when I ran out of the garage, I ripped my clothing off because I was in flames. I ran out to get the garden hose, and I put myself out. Then I went and extinguished the small fire, before passing out in my driveway. How long I was lying there, I don’t know, but I remembered a few things. My late wife’s name was Bev, and I remember lying on my back, looking up at the sky, and saying, ‘Bev, I don’t want you to see me like this.’” He notes that it was his neighbors who saw the smoke coming from his garage, and heard Whitaker calling for help. They were the ones who called 911 to initiate the emergency response. He did not recall anything, including the ambulance ride, as well as the first few days in the hospital; eventually, he was taken to his private room, and one doctor even performed a minor procedure on his hand, none of which he can remember.
In total, Whitaker sustained burns to his right hand, right arm, and much of his upper-to-mid torso, including most of his chest and stomach, before eventually spreading to his left hand. The burns covered about 35% of his body, though to what degree he didn’t recall.
Reflecting on his time at UofL Health, Whitaker notes that he had, “The best nurses and doctors. We were all on a first-name basis. The day I left and they wheeled me out to get me to rehab, I said, ‘Let’s not get emotional, I’ll be back.’ About two months after I was discharged, I was at the Burn Center. I walked down those steps to the sixth floor and for some reason, all those doctors and all those nurses were right there. We all got emotional. I told them I owe all of this to them, because I was a mess. For two months, I couldn’t even look at my hand because it was almost gone. But they did incredible work for me. They didn’t give my hand any chance, because all my burns were so bad, but they did incredible work for me to get me physically to where I am now. I can’t thank them enough.”
Whitaker spent exactly 30 days in UofL Health – UofL Hospital.
In reflecting on his experience, Whitaker notes that, “I’m happy to be alive. I guess it ain’t my time to go. I don’t know why, maybe I have more cars to build. But it was my own mistake, and it was my fault. It was an accident, but it happens.”
When asked what advice he would share with others in the early stages of treating a burn wound, Whitaker notes, “Keep your mind focused on getting home. Life goes on. I learned that after losing my wife and if this [burn] didn’t take me, I don’t know what will. But do what the doctors, nurses and therapists tell you what to do. I wasn’t going to let 35% of my body getting burned keep me down. It’s depressing sometimes, but when I let it go, it’s gone. I’m slowed down, but I’m not stopping. Until you go through something, you don’t know how hard something can be. Until you walk in someone else’s shoes, you don’t know how hard things can be. It’s just part of life, and sometimes life isn’t pretty.”
Whitaker already has some plans for the years ahead. “I’m going to keep working on these two cars, they’re probably two years in the making. They’re a lot of work.”
He hopes more than anything that his story can help someone in a similar situation to get through their experience. “I hope this can help someone else get through their trauma. I know how hard it is, and the rehab is rough, but I’m living proof that you can go on. I have the battle scars to prove it, but they’re just scars at the end of the day. This isn’t going to keep me down, and I just want to help someone else to get through the same things I was able to get through.”
