50 Facts About Lawrence Wetherby

Lawrence Winchester Wetherby was an American politician who served as Lieutenant Governor and Governor of Kentucky.

Lawrence Wetherby was the first of only two governors in state history born in Jefferson County, despite the fact that Louisville is the state's most populous city.

Lawrence Wetherby was called Kentucky's first "working" lieutenant governor because Governor Earle C Clements asked him to carry out duties beyond his constitutional responsibility to preside over the state Senate, such as preparing the state budget and attending the Southern Governors Conference.

Lawrence Wetherby won immediate acclaim by calling a special legislative session to increase funding for education and government benefits from the state's budget surplus.

Lawrence Wetherby endorsed the Supreme Court's 1954 desegregation order in the case of Brown v Board of Education and appointed a biracial commission to oversee the successful integration of the state's schools.

From 1964 to 1966, Lawrence Wetherby served on a commission charged with revising the state constitution, and in 1965 he was elected to the Kentucky Senate, where he provided leadership in drafting the state budget.

Lawrence Wetherby died on March 27,1994, of complications from a broken hip and was buried in Frankfort Cemetery in Frankfort, Kentucky.

Lawrence Wetherby was born January 2,1908, in Middletown, Kentucky.

Lawrence Wetherby was the fourth child of Samuel Davis and Fanny Wetherby.

Lawrence Wetherby's grandfather was a surgeon in the Union Army during the Civil War.

Lawrence Wetherby's father was a physician and farmer, and during his childhood years, Wetherby worked on the family farm.

Lawrence Wetherby was a letterman on the football team in 1927 and 1928; he played second base on the baseball team in 1928 and 1929, and was a letterman in that sport in 1929.

Lawrence Wetherby was later inducted into the university's Athletic Hall of Fame.

Thanks to his father's influence, Lawrence Wetherby became interested in local politics at an early age.

Lawrence Wetherby held this position through 1937, then returned to it in 1942 and 1943.

Lawrence Wetherby was elected chairman of the 34th Legislative District Democratic Committee in 1943 and held the position through 1956.

Previous lieutenant governors did little beyond their constitutionally mandated duty of presiding over the Kentucky Senate, but during Clements' administration, Lawrence Wetherby was charged with preparing a state budget, presiding over the Legislative Research Commission, leading tours for the state Chamber of Commerce, and attending the Southern Governors Conference.

Lawrence Wetherby's popularity soared as a result of this session, and he seriously considered running for the Senate seat vacated by the death of Virgil Chapman in 1951.

Chandler and Clements were bitter political enemies, and the possibility of a Chandler candidacy provided the Clements faction of the Democratic party with the impetus to unite behind Lawrence Wetherby to prevent Chandler from gaining the nomination.

Ultimately, Chandler did not seek the nomination and, despite implying that Clements controlled Lawrence Wetherby, Chandler endorsed Lawrence Wetherby on May 15,1951.

Lawrence Wetherby had little trouble defeating Howell Vincent and Jesse Cecil in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, polling the largest majority ever in a Kentucky primary race.

Lawrence Wetherby countered Siler's accusations of corruption by removing one of the officials accused of bribery from office.

Lawrence Wetherby deployed the newly organized Kentucky State Police to counter organized crime in Campbell and Henderson counties.

Lawrence Wetherby won the election by a vote of 346,345 to 288,014.

Lawrence Wetherby did so by imposing sin taxes on cigarettes, alcoholic beverages, and parimutuel betting, but he was unable to convince the General Assembly to adopt a sales tax.

Lawrence Wetherby encouraged President Dwight D Eisenhower to construct a federal toll road connecting the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico.

Lawrence Wetherby brought national attention to Kentucky as prime hunting and fishing land by conducting his own personal sporting excursions in the state.

Lawrence Wetherby tried to diversify the industries located in Kentucky to balance the state's primarily agrarian economy.

Lawrence Wetherby expanded the Agricultural and Industrial Development Board and charged it with conducting land surveys to identify potential industrial sites.

Lawrence Wetherby encouraged the development of modern airports in the state and supported the canalization of the Big Sandy River and improvement of the locks and dams on the Kentucky River.

Lawrence Wetherby continued to personally lead tours given by the state's Chamber of Commerce.

Lawrence Wetherby was not a pawn of industry, however: he secured passage of the state's first laws regulating strip mining and killed a right-to-work bill in 1954.

Lawrence Wetherby secured federal flood control programs for the watersheds of the Salt, Licking, Green, and Kentucky Rivers, saving valuable farmland.

In 1952, Lawrence Wetherby organized an agricultural council to consolidate the work of the state's agricultural bureaucracy.

Lawrence Wetherby oversaw completion of the state fairgrounds in Louisville, a project begun under Clements, to better display the state's agricultural products.

Lawrence Wetherby called for the creation of an educational television network and initiated the state's first publicly funded bookmobile program.

Lawrence Wetherby supported the 1954 Minimum Foundation Program, an amendment to the state constitution that allowed funding to be allocated to school districts based upon need rather than number of pupils.

In 1954 and 1955 Wetherby served as chairman of the Southern Governors Conference and urged the southern governors to peacefully implement desegregation as required by the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v Board of Education.

Lawrence Wetherby was one of five southern governors that refused to sign a statement opposing integration.

Lawrence Wetherby constructed new state prisons, modernized the probation and parole systems, and established a more orderly system of selecting grand and petit juries.

Lawrence Wetherby oversaw some voting reform measures, including the provision of funds to purchase voting machines in areas where they were desired.

Lawrence Wetherby was not as successful in the area of government reform.

Lawrence Wetherby failed in his efforts to amend the state's constitution to allow the governor to succeed himself in office.

Lawrence Wetherby was unable to win support for a plan to consolidate some of Kentucky's counties.

Lawrence Wetherby had named Combs to the Kentucky Court of Appeals in 1951 to fill a vacancy created by the death of Judge Roy Helm.

Lawrence Wetherby charged both Clements and Wetherby with extravagant spending in their administrations.

Ultimately, invoices showed that no $20,000 rug had been purchased by Clements, and Lawrence Wetherby's paneling had been purchased from and installed by a local contractor.

The Democratic state committee chose Lawrence Wetherby, who was only six months removed from his term as governor.

Lawrence Wetherby won the election, defeating the candidate favored by Chandler, and was chosen president of that body from 1966 to 1968.

Lawrence Wetherby died on March 27,1994, of complications from a broken hip.