Glass, of Calumet, dead

Margaret Glass, a 40-year employee at Calumet Farm and its informal historian, died Saturday in Lexington, Ky., at the age of 82.

Glass joined Calumet in 1940 when she was 19 and served the farm and its owners - Warren Wright Sr., his wife, Lucille, and later Lucille's second husband, Admiral Gene Markey - in many capacities, from secretary to bookings manager. She was a front-row witness to the farm's most glorious achievements, including Whirlaway's 1941 Triple Crown and the Derby wins of Calumet-breds Citation, Pensive, Ponder, Hill Gail, Iron Leige, Tim Tam, and Forward Pass.

Glass left the fabled nursery in 1982 at the insistence of Lucille Wright's son-in-law, J.T. Lundy, who took over the farm's presidency that year. Glass therefore missed Alydar's death in 1990 and the farm's subsequent spiral into scandal and bankruptcy under Lundy's leadership, which ended with Lundy's conviction for conspiracy, fraud, and bribery and the farm's 1992 sale to Henyrk de Kwiatkowski.

In 1996, when it appeared that Calumet's famous trophy collection might be sold to help settle debts, Glass helped organize a movement that raised $2.7 million to purchase more than 500 trophies and paintings and keep them at the Kentucky Horse Park.

In 1964, Glass was named farm manager of the year by the Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers' Club.

Glass is survived by Frank Glass, her husband of more than 60 years, their son, George Reid Glass, and their daughter, Willow Rose Glass Cooper.