who the company claims spent most of his life preserving the tradition of handcrafted bourbon. Blanton worked at the facility now known as the Buffalo Trace Distillery for approximately 55 years. He was born and raised on a farm just outside Frankfort, Kentucky, and he began working at the distillery (then called the O.F.C. Distillery or Old Fire Copper Distillery) in 1897 as an office boy when he was 16 years old. Over the next few years, he reportedly worked in every department, and in 1912 he was appointed superintendent of the distillery, its warehouse, and bottling shop – at the same time that the distillery was renamed to become the George T. Stagg Distillery. He became president of the whiskey plant in 1921. Blanton died in 1959. The company refers to him as "Colonel Blanton", as he held the honorific title of Kentucky Colonel (a relatively common honorific bestowed by the Commonwealth of Kentucky). The distillery had several owners during its history, and was renamed by its current owner, the Sazerac Company, to become the Buffalo Trace Distillery in 2001. Elmer T. Lee, the originator of Blanton's, was hired by the distillery by Blanton in 1949. He introduced the Blanton's brand in 1984, a year before he retired, as the first modern brand of bourbon marketed as single barrel bourbon. Lee continued to act as an ambassador for Buffalo Trace until his death in 2013. References Bourbon whiskey Frankfort, Kentucky Sazerac Company brands