35 Facts About Simeon Willis

Simeon Slavens Willis was an American attorney who served as the 46th Governor of Kentucky, United States, serving from 1943 to 1947.

Simeon Willis was the only Republican elected governor of Kentucky between 1927 and 1967.

Simeon Willis became interested in politics, but his early races for office were unsuccessful with the exception of his four-year stint as city solicitor for Ashland, Kentucky.

Simeon Willis went on to win a full four-year term on the court in 1928, and distinguished himself by revising Thornton on the Law of Oil and Gas, a six-volume law reference.

Simeon Willis was defeated for re-election to his seat in 1932 and returned to his law practice.

Simeon Willis was opposed by Democratic majorities in both houses of the Kentucky General Assembly.

Simeon Willis was not able to realize his campaign promise of eliminating the state income tax because the legislature expanded the budget far beyond what he proposed.

Simeon Willis died on April 1,1965, and is interred at Frankfort Cemetery in the capital city of Frankfort.

Simeon S Willis was born on December 1,1879, in Lawrence County, Ohio, which is located along the Ohio River on the southern border of the state.

Simeon Willis was the youngest of nine children born to John H and Abigail Willis.

Later, John Simeon Willis moved to eastern Ohio, where he became a pioneer in the charcoal industry.

Simeon Willis was educated in the public schools of Lawrence County.

Simeon Willis worked as a reporter for the Portsmouth Tribune and an editorial writer for the Greenup Gazette.

Simeon Willis simultaneously read law with private tutors, including future congressman Joseph Bentley Bennett and William Corn, a professor at Ada University.

Simeon Willis was admitted to the bar on November 11,1901, and in January 1902, he established a law practice in Ashland.

Simeon Willis took a brief leave of politics and served as an appeals agent for the Selective Service System during World War I In 1918, he won the election for Ashland city solicitor and served in that position until 1922.

Simeon Willis married Ida Lee Millis, a deputy county clerk, on April 14,1920.

The couple had one daughter, Sarah Leslie Simeon Willis, born on July 16,1922.

Ida Simeon Willis became the first female executive director of the Kentucky Heritage Commission.

When Flem D Sampson was elected governor in 1927, he appointed Willis to fill his seat on the Kentucky Court of Appeals.

In 1928, Simeon Willis was elected to a full four-year term representing the Court's Seventh Appellate District.

In 1943, Simeon Willis was approached by the Republican Party and was unopposed for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.

Donaldson warned against changing the political party in power while World War II was still ongoing, but Simeon Willis countered that the soldiers must come home to a better state than the one they left, and that would not occur if the Democratic political machine were allowed to continue in power.

Simeon Willis further proposed abolition of the state income tax, a proposal that was popular with voters, but was derided by the Democratic-leaning Louisville Courier-Journal as a "weird unreality".

Simeon Willis won the general election by a vote of 279,144 to 270,525.

Simeon Willis was the only Republican elected governor of Kentucky in a 40-year period spanning from 1927 to 1967.

Simeon Willis faced the challenge of having Democratic majorities in both houses of the General Assembly and strong Democratic leadership in each.

Simeon Willis did not make wholesale dismissals of Democratic appointees at higher levels in the state government, owing in part to shortages of experienced people during the war.

The state budget was $31 million when Simeon Willis took office; by the time he left office, it had expanded to $52 million.

Simeon Willis created a Commission on Negro Affairs, appointed the first African American to the state Board of Education, and increased state aid to pay out-of-state tuition to minorities who had been denied admission to professional programs in the segregated state universities.

Two months after the end of the session, Simeon Willis called a special session to reconcile the educational items in the budget.

The vote to accept the budget was deemed invalid because approving a full budget was not part of Simeon Willis's initial call for a special session.

Simeon Willis renewed his call for an income tax repeal in the 1946 legislative session, but Democrats opposed the repeal and Republicans were split on the issue.

From 1956 to 1960, Simeon Willis served as a member of the Kentucky Public Service Commission.

Simeon Willis died on April 2,1965, and is buried at the Frankfort Cemetery in the state capital.