Kash D. Amburgy: The Ol' Country Boy from South Lebanon

For about twenty years, almost anyone in the Cincinnati area with a radio or a television knew where South Lebanon was, because Kash Amburgy kept telling them how to get there:

Follow the signs, follow the arrows, follow the cars to Kash's Big Bargain Barn in South Lebanon, Ohio, where you save cash with Kash.

The man behind the slogan was a preacher before he was a salesman, and he stayed both until the end of his life. He also built a large share of the houses in the village. The South Lebanon historical marker credits his store's TV commercials with "literally putting South Lebanon on the map."

From Owsley County, Kentucky

Kash Day Amburgy was born on March 18, 1922, in Lerose, Owsley County, Kentucky, to Floyd Day Amburgy (1892–1968) and Jalah Spencer Amburgy (1898–1992). He was one of a large family: his brothers were Wayne, Marvin, Claude, Cotton, Blaine and Ellis, and his sisters were Lois (Bowman), Ilene, Faye (Roblin) and Kay (Penwell).

His father ran a general merchandise store, and Kash liked to say his father named him "Kash" so "he'd always have some of it around." He reminded people it was "Kash with a capital K."

He began his career as a young man in eastern Kentucky, selling Bibles door to door. He called himself the "World's Champion Bible Salesman," and when challenged he sold 170 Bibles in six days.

Coming to South Lebanon, 1947

In 1947 the Amburgy family moved from Kentucky to Warren County. Several of Kash's brothers and sisters settled in and around South Lebanon and Lebanon, raised families there, and are buried in Deerfield Cemetery. Blaine and Ellis graduated from Lebanon High School, and Ellis worked for his brother before starting his own building business.

Kash married Mary Lou Gilbreth around 1949. She was born on July 4, 1921, in Henry County, Tennessee. They were married for more than fifty years, and she worked beside him in the ministry and the business.

Homes, lumber, gas and ice cream

Before the Bargain Barn, Kash was a builder. The marker at Kash D. Amburgy Park says he built more than 350 homes in Warren County between 1950 and 1962, and his obituary says he built "hundreds of homes in the South Lebanon area." Some of them were in a subdivision named for him: deeds refer to lots in "Kash D. Amburgy Subdivision No. 2" in the Village of South Lebanon.

An early ad from this period shows how many businesses he ran at once. Under his photo and a radio microphone it offers new low-priced homes, large ranch-type brick homes, "baby farms" of one to four acres, lumber, building materials, Sinclair products, Goodyear tires, Dairy Creme products, and books and Bibles. His obituaries confirm that he owned the Kash Amburgy Lumber Co., a gas station and an ice cream store.

Kash's Big Bargain Barn

Kash's Bargain Barn sold furniture and appliances. Accounts differ on where the building came from (see Notes on the record below). A 1975 letter to customers says the store had completed "fifteen years of successful operation" that March, so it opened in March 1960. He and Mary Lou ran it for 23 years and closed it in 1983.

The store was big. The same 1975 letter reports sales of about $1,250,000 the year before and describes a "giant 8-floor display" of Zenith and Admiral color TVs, Kimball pianos and organs, Maytag, Westinghouse and KitchenAid appliances, microwave ovens, furniture, garden tractors, mowers, and oil, coal, gas and wood heaters. A December 1971 newspaper ad promoted a "$300,000.00 Pre-Inventory Sale" with 1,000 pieces that had to go. Later ads gave the location as "off State Route 48 near I-71," open daily until 9 p.m. and closed Sundays.

Why a barn in South Lebanon?

What made Kash famous was his own advertising. He did his own radio and TV commercials in a fast, gravelly, unpolished voice and an exaggerated "South Leb-a-non, O-hi-o." Marketing writers who grew up with the ads still remember them. A former Procter & Gamble marketer called them "so anti-slick that they made the local car dealers seem to be Tiffany-level advertisers" and remembered the tag line for more than 30 years. He and his wife drove 30 miles one Saturday just to see the place.

The location was part of the pitch. As remembered by Greg Hague, who met Kash as a boy, a typical commercial went:

Hello friends, this is Kash Amburgy coming to you from Kash's Big Bargain Barn, a few miles north in South Lebanon, Ohio. We don't have a fancy showroom. We don't even have a paved lot. … Since we save on cost, you save with lower prices. … Noo-body, and I mean noo-body, can sell for less than Kash.

Hague's point was that the out-of-the-way barn was the reason customers believed the prices. Shoppers drove out from Cincinnati to see for themselves, and in some ads Kash appeared "with my Mary Lou." By 1971, according to one account, he was a millionaire.

The preacher

Kash was ordained more than 60 years before his death and never stopped preaching. He called himself "the ol' country preacher" and "the ol' country boy." He held tent revivals, traveled with a gospel group billed as "The Amburgy Brothers," and preached on the radio.

• Radio. His Bible Church of God broadcast ran for 53 years on WPFB in Middletown. Recordings also aired on many other stations. Different sources give 68 or 124 stations, sometimes as often as six times a day. The park marker says he recorded about 3,500 sermons that were broadcast across the United States, Canada, the Bahamas and South America. On air the preacher often became the salesman, with commercials for the Bargain Barn that could run 15 minutes. He gave his last live broadcast on September 29, 2002, less than a month before he died.
• His church. He bought the building of the church he pastored, the Bible Church of God at 500 West Mulberry Street in Lebanon. He first set it up as a church for his extended family. A 1982 notice lists Kash D. and Mary Lou Amburgy as founders and pastors and invites the public to Sunday-afternoon "Prayer Fellowship Conferences." The church also published a songbook, 100 Favorite Radio and Revival Songs.
• The Holy Land. Kash and Mary Lou led tours to Israel for decades. By 1975 they were advertising their 20th. The park marker says they organized more than 100 trips. His sister said Kash went 83 times himself, and Mary Lou made 61 tours. A tribute at his death said, "They know Kash Amburgy in Israel as well as they do in South Lebanon."

Amburgy also worked in the wider Pentecostal revival circuit of the 1950s and 1960s. William Branham Historical Research, a site that studies evangelist William Branham, says Amburgy promoted ministers from Branham's campaign team. A transcript of a January 1965 Branham meeting in Phoenix records Branham naming "Kash Amburgy" as a scheduled speaker who had not yet arrived.

Death and remembrance

Rev. Kash D. Amburgy died on October 23, 2002, at Bethesda North Hospital, at age 80. After visitation at Stine-Kilburn Funeral Home in Lebanon, his funeral was held on October 28 at the Kings Point Church of God in Maineville. He is buried in Deerfield Cemetery in South Lebanon.

"I'll miss Kash," South Lebanon Mayor James Smith told the Cincinnati Enquirer. The village proclaimed a Kash Amburgy Day in his honor. "He was a wonderful Christian man," said his sister Kay Penwell. "He was a very enjoyable, giving person. And he was always the salesperson."

Mary Lou Amburgy lived until June 2, 2018. In her later years she devoted herself to the Darlene Bishop Home for Life at Solid Rock Church. She is also buried in Deerfield Cemetery.

Kash Amburgy in South Lebanon today

• Kash D. Amburgy Park, at North High and East Pike streets (199 N. High St.). The Village Council placed a marker there in 2011 honoring him as "minister, salesman, and home builder."
• The Deerfield–South Lebanon historical marker (Ohio History Connection marker 17-83, erected 2017 by the South Lebanon Historical Society, the mayor and council) at the Little Miami Scenic Trail trailhead, 392 S. Main St. It lists Kash's Bargain Barn alongside King's Great Western Powder Works, the Hayner cannery, Fred's Mushrooms and Duff's Smorgasbord as landmarks of village history.
• His grave and his family's graves in Deerfield Cemetery.
• The houses he built. Many South Lebanon homes from the 1950s and early 1960s, including the streets of the Kash D. Amburgy subdivisions, were his work.

More of the Society's Kash material, including ads and the full Amburgy-to-Greer deed, is in the Kash Amburgy collection.

Notes on the record

Our sources don't always agree. Where they differ, we list both versions below. We don't know which is correct. If you know, please contact us on the SLHS Facebook page so we can correct the record.

• Where the barn came from. His 2002 obituary says he turned his own lumber yard into the store. Greg Hague's accounts say he rented a barn, or built a red barn next to a cornfield.
• Years married. The 2002 obituaries say Kash and Mary Lou were married 53 years. The 2011 park marker says 52.
• Radio stations. One account says his sermons aired on 68 stations; the Enquirer obituary says 124.
• Holy Land trips. His obituary says he and Mary Lou organized "hundreds" of trips. The park marker says "more than 100."
• Bible sales. He is said to have sold 170 Bibles in six days in one account and in one week in another.
• Kash Amburgy Day. The newspaper text we have seen is incomplete ("…28 has been marked as Kash Amburgy Day"). We believe the date was October 28, 2002, the day of his funeral, but have not confirmed it.

Do you remember the Bargain Barn, buy a house from Kash, or have a photo of the store? Please share it on the SLHS Facebook page.

Sources

• South Lebanon Village Council, Kash D. Amburgy Park marker (2011)
• South Lebanon Historical Society et al., Deerfield–South Lebanon marker (2017)
• "Amburgy, Kash D.," Dayton Daily News, October 26, 2002, transcribed by the Owsley County, Kentucky Historical Society, which also holds obituaries of his brothers Wayne, Blaine, Cotton and Ellis
• Death notice, Cincinnati Enquirer, October 2002
• Find a Grave memorial 7132677, Deerfield Cemetery, which includes Enquirer obituary text
• Obituary of Mary Lou Amburgy, Stine Funeral Home, 2018
• Richard Sellers, "Save Cash with Kash," ShellyPalmer.com, 2011
• Greg Hague, "Kash's Big Bargain Barn Success Story," 2023, and "The Preacher Who Taught Me How to Make Millions in Real Estate"
• William Branham Historical Research, "Kash Amburgy"
• South Lebanon Historical Society collection: ads, the 1975 "Flash from Kash" letter, the 1982 prayer conference notice, the Amburgy Brothers postcard, and the Amburgy-to-Greer deed