Lawrence Winchester Wetherby 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 is the state’s most populous city. He died in 1994 of complications from a broken hip.
About Lawrence Wetherby in brief
Lawrence Winchester Wetherby 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 is the state’s most populous city. After graduating from the University of Louisville, he held several minor offices in the Jefferson County judicial system before being elected lieutenant governor in 1947. In 1950, Clements resigned to assume a seat in the U.S. Senate, elevating Wether by 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. As chairman of the Southern Governors Conference in 1954 and 1955, he encouraged other southern governors to accept and implement desegregation. In 1966, he was elected to the Kentucky Senate, where he provided leadership in drafting the state budget. He died March 27, 1994, of complications from a broken hip and was buried in Frankfort Cemetery inFrankfort, Kentucky. 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. He married Helen Dwyer in 1930; the couple had three children. The second governor born in Kentucky is the incumbent governor, Andy Beshear, who was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1936. Wether By was a member of the Kentucky Democratic Party and served on the 34th Legislative District Democratic Committee in 1943 and held the position through 1956.
He also served on a commission charged with revising the state constitution, and in 1966 he served as a consultant for Brighton Engineering. He supported 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. In 1929, he earned his Bachelor of Laws degree and went to work for Judge Henry Tilford. In March 1947, he resigned as trial commissioner of the juvenile court in order to run for lieutenant governor. The strongest of his opponents in the Democratic primary was Bill May, the nephew of U. S. Representative Andrew J. May. Bill May had sought the support of Governor Earle Clements, but Clements refused, possibly because May was an ally of May’s political opponent, John Y. Brown. Despite Bill May’s refusal to endorse W etherby in the primary, he went on to defeat Republican Orville M. Howard by over 95,000 votes. Some observers called Wetherbys Kentucky’s first \”working\” lieutenant governor because he carried out duties beyond his constitutional responsibility to preside over the state Senate, such as preparing the statebudget and attending the Southern governors Conference. In 1954, he supported Bert Combs to be his successor, but Combs lost in theDemocratic primary to A. B. Happy Chandler, a former governor and factional opponent of both Wethery and Clements.
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