69 Facts About Wallace Wilkinson

Wallace Glenn Wilkinson was an American businessman and politician from the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

The business rapidly became a national success, and Wallace Wilkinson re-invested his profits in real estate, farming, transportation, banking, coal, and construction ventures, becoming extremely wealthy.

Wallace Wilkinson campaigned on a promise of no new taxes and advocated a state lottery as an alternative means of raising money for the state.

Wallace Wilkinson was able to secure passage of a constitutional amendment allowing a state lottery.

Wallace Wilkinson helped craft a significant education reform bill in response to a ruling by the Kentucky Supreme Court that declared the state's entire public school system unconstitutional.

Wallace Wilkinson's term was plagued by political scandal and an uneasy relationship with the state legislature.

Wallace Wilkinson advocated an amendment to the state constitution that would allow him to seek a second consecutive term as governor, but the amendment was defeated in the General Assembly.

Wallace Wilkinson's condition was complicated by a recurrence of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Wallace Wilkinson suffered a stroke on July 4,2002, and his family withdrew his life support the following day in accordance with his previously expressed wishes.

Wallace Wilkinson was born on a farm in Casey County, Kentucky, about 5 miles southwest of the city of Liberty, on December 12,1941.

The son of Hershel and Cleo Wallace Wilkinson, he had two older brothers and a younger sister.

Wallace Wilkinson's parents were farmers and operated a small general store.

When Wallace Wilkinson was four years old, the family moved to Liberty, and the family opened Wallace Wilkinson's Grocery.

Wallace Wilkinson accompanied his father to sell produce from the back of a truck.

Wallace Wilkinson was a member of the freshman basketball team at Liberty High School.

Wallace Wilkinson graduated from high school in 1959, but the poor curriculum there left him without the credits he needed to gain admission to the University of Kentucky's engineering program.

Wallace Wilkinson began selling livestock feed in Scottsville, Kentucky, and worked at a venetian blind factory while taking classes at Campbellsville College to earn the credits he needed.

Later, he and two friends borrowed money to open the Kentucky Paperback Gallery in Lexington; Wallace Wilkinson left school later that year to attend to the business full-time.

At the time, Kentucky high school students were required to purchase their own textbooks, but there was no marketplace for buying and selling used books; Wallace Wilkinson's business catered to this market and was highly successful.

Wallace Wilkinson purchased several private aircraft to help him tend to his diverse interests throughout the state, and in 1973, created Wilkinson Flying Service to keep the planes busy when he wasn't using them.

Unwilling to meet Wallace Wilkinson's asking price, they instead formed a partnership with him to co-develop the Vine Center.

Wallace Wilkinson hoped that all the major coal companies in the state would relocate their offices to the center, making it a hub for the international coal market.

Shortly after Wallace Wilkinson demolished the historic Phoenix Hotel to make way for the building, the coal market experienced a pronounced lull, and the empty lot where the proposed coal center would have stood was derided as "Wally's Folly" and "Lake Wallace Wilkinson".

In 1984, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government secured a lease from Wallace Wilkinson to develop a temporary municipal park on the site.

Wallace Wilkinson conceded that he would not be able to develop the proposed World Coal Center in the near-term, and Lexington mayor Scotty Baesler wanted to improve the property before the city hosted the finals of the 1985 NCAA men's basketball tournament at Rupp Arena.

In early 1985, Wallace Wilkinson struck a deal with the state and urban county governments to retain the park and build a public library and parking garage while allowing Wallace Wilkinson to construct and operate a 21-story apartment complex above the garage.

In 1977, Wallace Wilkinson had provided Jernigan with start-up money for Jernigan Export Timber, Inc.

Wallace Wilkinson went defunct around the time of Jernigan's divorce from his wife, the secretary-treasurer of the company, in December 1980.

Wallace Wilkinson, who owned an interest in New Farmers National Bank, told Aldridge he needed $500,000 as soon as possible.

Wallace Wilkinson said Jernigan threatened to kill employees at the company if Wallace Wilkinson attempted to alert them.

Jernigan told authorities that he and Wallace Wilkinson had spent the previous night at the Crowne Plaza negotiating a settlement to their differences stemming from their earlier business relationship.

Wallace Wilkinson would furnish Jernigan with a car, a furnished apartment in Lexington, and a salary of $5,000 a month.

Jernigan stated that after the $500,000 was paid, Wallace Wilkinson decided to back out of the settlement and portray the encounter as a crime.

Wallace Wilkinson was an admirer of Ronald Reagan, although he said he wished Reagan was a Democrat like himself.

In 1979, Wilkinson became involved with Terry McBrayer's campaign against John Y Brown Jr.

Wallace Wilkinson held a critical fundraiser for Scotty Baesler's 1981 Lexington mayoral campaign, although most of the businessmen in Lexington favored Baesler's opponent.

Already considering running for governor in 1987, Wallace Wilkinson had hoped to remove Brown as a potential competitor for that office by helping him get elected to the Senate, but Brown ended his campaign early for health reasons.

Wallace Wilkinson lobbied the General Assembly to pass a multi-bank holding company bill allowing banking companies to own more than one Kentucky bank.

Relatively unknown statewide, Wallace Wilkinson was the first candidate to enter the race.

Early in the race, Brown was the clear-cut favorite, while Wallace Wilkinson was picked to finish fifth.

Wallace Wilkinson financed his own campaign and campaign manager Danny Briscoe suggested that he hire a campaign consultant to reach out to the state's large concentration of undecided voters.

Meanwhile, Wallace Wilkinson attacked all of his opponents in the race as political insiders while touting his own rise from poverty to financial success.

Wallace Wilkinson called the incentive package that sitting governor Martha Layne Collins had offered to lure a Toyota manufacturing plant to the state "a massive mistake and terrible deal" that had made Kentucky "an international laughingstock".

Wallace Wilkinson won the primary, garnering 36 percent of the vote to 26 percent for Brown, 18 percent for Beshear, 12 percent for Stumbo, and 6 percent for Carroll.

Democrats enjoyed a 3-to-1 voter registration advantage in Kentucky, and while he had been the underdog in the primary campaign, Wallace Wilkinson became the heavy favorite against the Republican nominee, State Representative John Harper of Shepherdsville.

Wallace Wilkinson was forced to pay $44,641 in back taxes.

Further, Republican state chairman Bob Gable questioned whether Wallace Wilkinson had helped Italian businessmen circumvent laws that made it difficult to export Italian currency by disguising real estate ventures as legitimate business transactions with Jernigan Export Timber.

Wallace Wilkinson's campaign delved into Harper's personal life, admitting that it tipped off the media about Harper's son, who had been shot to death in an attempted burglary.

At a press conference shortly after the election, Wallace Wilkinson said he did not know what role Jones would play in his administration and that much of it would depend on what Jones had meant when he said he did not agree with all of Wallace Wilkinson's positions.

In late November 1987, Wallace Wilkinson announced that Jones would spearhead the promotion of the administration's agricultural agenda.

Legislators proposed that a succession amendment include provisions to lengthen the terms of state legislators to maintain a balance of power between the executive and legislative branches; Wallace Wilkinson insisted that the General Assembly pass a "clean" succession amendment, free from any other provisions that might diminish the amendment's chances of being approved by the state's voters.

When Wallace Wilkinson rejected both proposals, Senate leaders refused to bring the amendment to the floor for a vote.

Leaders of the Southern Baptists and United Methodists led opposition to the amendment during Wallace Wilkinson's administration, activating the Coalition Against a State Lottery.

An advocate for education, Wallace Wilkinson dropped the governor's office's defense in the suit and joined the plaintiffs when Corns' decision was appealed to the Kentucky Supreme Court.

Wallace Wilkinson presented a budget proposal to the General Assembly that contained measures increasing taxes on cigarettes and corporations and eliminating sales tax exemptions on legal, engineering, and advertising services.

For much of the legislative session, Wallace Wilkinson remained steadfastly opposed to an increased sales tax, repeatedly calling it a "dead issue" and threatening to veto it.

Wallace Wilkinson threatened to veto the measure, claiming he did not need the General Assembly's approval to issue the bonds, but ultimately, he chose to allow it to become law without his signature.

Wallace Wilkinson vetoed 21 bills passed by the legislature, but 13 of those vetoes were overridden; it was the most gubernatorial vetoes overridden in a single session in modern times.

Wallace Wilkinson was elected chair of the Southern Governors' Association in 1990 and served on the Education Commission of the States' Policy and Priorities Committee.

The Wallace Wilkinson administration was dogged by ethical questions that eventually resulted in prosecution of some members.

Bruce Wallace Wilkinson was convicted of extortion, fined $20,000, and sentenced to three years in prison.

Wallace Wilkinson was investigated by a grand jury but never indicted.

On February 5,2001, a group of Wallace Wilkinson's creditors filed suit to have his companies seized.

Wallace Wilkinson had paid no federal income taxes since 1991.

At his deposition in June 2001, Wallace Wilkinson invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination over 140 times.

Wallace Wilkinson began taking chemotherapy, and doctors removed the mass on June 4,2002.

Wallace Wilkinson was placed on life support on June 26,2002.

Wallace Wilkinson had previously instructed his family not to continue life support after all hope of recovery was gone; accordingly, they decided to withdraw life support, and Wallace Wilkinson died on July 5,2002.

Wallace Wilkinson was originally buried at Blue Grass Memorial Gardens in Nicholasville, Kentucky.