Lawrence Wetherby

Lawrence Winchester Wetherby (January 2, 1908 – March 27, 1994) was an American politician who served as Lieutenant Governor and Governor of Kentucky.

He was the first of only two governors in state history born in Jefferson County, despite the fact that Louisville (the county seat) is the state's most populous city.

The second governor born in Jefferson County is the incumbent governor, Andy Beshear.

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

He was the fourth child of Samuel Davis and Fanny (Yenowine) Wetherby.

His grandfather was a surgeon in the Union Army during the Civil War.

His father was also a physician and farmer, and during his childhood years, Wetherby worked on the family farm.

After graduating from Anchorage High School, Wetherby enrolled in the pre-law program at the University of Louisville.

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

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

In 1929, he earned his Bachelor of Laws degree and went to work for Judge Henry Tilford.

On April 24, 1930, he married Helen Dwyer; the couple had three children.

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

School board races fascinated him, and he allied himself with a faction of the Jefferson County Democratic Party headed by Leland Taylor and Ben Ewing.

When Ewing was elected county judge in 1933, he appointed Wetherby as a part-time attorney for the Jefferson County juvenile court.

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

In March 1943, he was appointed the first trial commissioner of the juvenile court.

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

After graduating from the University of Louisville, Wetherby held several minor offices in the Jefferson County judicial system before being elected lieutenant governor in 1947.

He 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.

In March 1947, he resigned as trial commissioner of the juvenile court in order to run for lieutenant governor.

The strongest of his four opponents in the Democratic primary was Bill May, the nephew of U.S. Representative Andrew J. May.

May had sought the support of gubernatorial candidate Earle C. Clements, but Clements refused, possibly because Congressman May was an ally of Clements' political opponent John Y. Brown.

Wetherby was also unable to secure Clements' public endorsement, but he won the primary and went on to defeat Republican Orville M. Howard by over 95,000 votes.

Despite Clements' refusal to endorse Wetherby in the primary, the two generally agreed on their legislative agendas and worked well together.

Some observers called Wetherby Kentucky's first "working" lieutenant governor.

Previous lieutenant governors did little beyond their constitutionally mandated duty of presiding over the Kentucky Senate, but during Clements' administration, 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.

Clements also made Wetherby executive secretary of the State Democratic Central Committee, which allowed Wetherby to make many important political contacts.

In 1950, Clements resigned to assume a seat in the U.S. Senate, elevating Wetherby to governor.

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

The two would remain partners until 1950.

On November 27, 1950, Clements resigned to accept a seat in the U.S. Senate, elevating Wetherby to governor.

In 1951, he won a four-year full term as governor, during which he continued and expanded many of Clements' programs, including increased road construction and industrial diversification.

He 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.

As chairman of the Southern Governors Conference in 1954 and 1955, he encouraged other southern governors to accept and implement desegregation.

Limited to one term by the state constitution, Wetherby supported Bert Combs to be his successor, but Combs lost in the Democratic primary to A. B. "Happy" Chandler, a former governor and factional opponent of both Wetherby and Clements.

Chandler's failure to support Wetherby's 1956 bid to succeed Democrat Alben Barkley in the Senate contributed to his loss to Republican John Sherman Cooper.

From 1964 to 1966, 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.

Following this, he retired from politics and served as a consultant for Brighton Engineering.

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