GLASGOW — Those who knew Sarah Ann Bowers the best say she was the kind of person who never turned down a challenge.

Bowers accepted many challenges during her lifetime, including taking on state government to get improvements made along Ky. 63, the winding highway that has come to be known as the “Roller Coaster.”

On Saturday, at a special event will take place at 10 a.m. at the Freedom School on Ky. 63 near the Temple Hill community in southeastern Barren County to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Roller Coaster Yard Sale. The event also will honor the memory of Bowers, who came up with the idea to start the Roller Coaster Yard Sale. There will be brief remarks and light refreshments served.

Linda Wood, of Temple Hill, described her aunt as being “someone who would not take no for an answer,” she said. “Nothing was too big for her.”

Her brother, Stanley Smith, said his sister was someone who didn’t mind working alone to get things done. He also said she would be pleased with the ceremony planned for Saturday.

“It would tickle her to death because that was the kind of thing she liked,” he said.

Bowers died at 79 in March 2008. She was a member of numerous civic organizations, including the Glasgow-Barren County Chamber of Commerce, Kiwanis Club, the National Historical Society and the Glasgow Business and Professional Women’s Club.

Among her accomplishments was helping to plan the first Glasgow Highland Games, the Kentucky Vicksburg Monument Association, and restoration of the Freedom School House. She also served as chairperson for the Bicentennial Celebration of Barren County and was instrumental in getting Ky. 63 named the Cordell Hull Scenic Byway.

“Sarah was a very community-minded person and one of the reasons she started the Roller Coaster Yard Sale was because she wanted to call attention to Highway 63 and improvements that were needed to straighten it out for safer travel,” said Ann Stewart with the Glasgow-Barren County Tourist and Convention Commission. “More importantly, she wanted to bring travelers, tourists, if you will, through the rural communities of southcentral Kentucky because these communities have so much to offer.”

Bud Tarry served with Bowers on the first Ky. 63 Improvement Committee.

“Our goal was to get improvements to Ky. 63 and one of the ways we wanted to do that was to publicize our plight out there, to let people know about the problems we had with Highway 63,” he said.

Some of the improvements made to Ky. 63 over the years as a result of the committee and Bowers’ work were the straightening of a hairpin curve near Morrison Park, the widening of the entrance to Lyons School House Road and cutting down a bluff near Skaggs Creek.

Serving with Bowers on the committee was fun, he said.

“We met with the governor on two or three different occasions. We took busloads to Frankfort during the legislative meetings,” Tarry said.

On one of the committee’s visits to Frankfort, they gave legislators barf bags to use in the event they got sick while traveling the steep grade hills and hairpin curves along Ky. 63, Tarry said.

“When she came up with the idea of the Roller Coaster Fair it was based on some place up in northern Kentucky there they have that big yard sale,” he said.

The Roller Coaster Yard Sale covers 150 miles across nine counties in southcentral Kentucky and northeastern Tennessee. The route begins in Cave City and continues through Temple Hill and other communities along the Cordell Hull Highway, which includes Ky. 63, Ky. 163, Ky. 90 and Ky. 127; Tenn. 52 and Tenn. 111.

According to a website dedicated to the Roller Coaster Yard Sale, more than 140,000 people traveled the Roller Coaster road in 2001. On the 10th anniversary of the event, the attendance surpassed the Kentucky Derby. In 2002, the Roller Coaster Yard Sale descended into Tennessee from Clay County through Overton and Pickett counties, and this year will span around Dale Hollow Lake.

For more information about the Roller Coaster Yard Sale, visit the website at www.rollercoasterfair.com.