Lawrence Winchester Wetherby (January 2, 1908 – March 27, 1994) was an American politician who served as 40th lieutenant governor and the 48th governor of Kentucky. He was the first of only two Kentucky governors 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, Democrat Andy Beshear, who grew up in the Lexington area. Two other governors have been elected when residents of Jefferson: Republicans Augustus Willson, 1907–11, and Matt Bevin, 2015–19.
After graduating from the University of Louisville, Wetherby held several offices in the Jefferson County judicial system before being elected lieutenant governor in 1947 as the quiet choice of Democrat 2nd District U.S. Rep. Earle C. Clements from Morganfield, who won the primary for the top job. Wetherby was called Kentucky's first "working" lieutenant governor because Clements had him 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 1950, Clements was elected to the U.S. Senate, elevating Wetherby to governor on Nov. 27. Wetherby won immediate acclaim by calling a special legislative session to increase funding for education and government benefits from the state's budget surplus, which had been boosted by the Korean War. In 1951, campaigning as a "Middletown farmer" in a largely rural state, he won a full four-year term, 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 joined Clements and Lt. Gov. Emerson Beauchamp in supporting Bert Combs for governor, but Combs lost in the Democratic primary to former governor A. B. "Happy" Chandler, their factional adversary. When Democratic Sen. Alben W. Barkley died in April 1956, Clements refused to compromise with Chandler on selection of a Democrat for the special election to fill the vacancy, and got the state Democratic committee to nominate Wetherby. With Chandler's organization against them, Wetherby lost to Republican John Sherman Cooper, a former senator who had lost to Barkley in 1954, and Clements narrowly lost to Republican Thruston Morton.
In 1964–65, Wetherby served on a commission that proposed a new state constitution, and in 1965 he was elected to the state Senate from Frankfort, where he provided leadership in drafting the state budget and served as Senate president pro tempore. Following this, he retired from politics and served as a consultant for Brighton Engineering in Frankfort. Wetherby died on March 27, 1994, of complications from a broken hip and was buried in Frankfort Cemetery in Frankfort, Kentucky.
Early life and career Lawrence Wetherby was born January 2, 1908, in Middletown, Kentucky."Kentucky Governor Lawrence Winchester Wetherby". National Governors Association. He was the fourth child of Samuel Davis and Fanny (Yenowine) Wetherby.Powell, p. 102 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.Kleber in Kentucky's Governors, p. 191
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.Bolus, p. 1932 He was later inducted into the university's Athletic Hall of Fame."Athletic Hall of Fame". University of Louisville In 1929, he earned his Bachelor of Laws degree and went to work for Judge Henry Tilford. The two would remain partners until 1950.Kleber in "As Luck Would Have It", p. 398 On April 24, 1930, he married Helen Dwyer; the couple had three children.Harrison in The Kentucky Encyclopedia, p. 945
Thanks to his father's influence, Wetherby became interested in local politics at an early age.Kleber in "As Luck Would Have It", p. 399 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.
Lieutenant governor Wetherby was elected chairman of the 34th Legislative District Democratic Committee in 1943 and held the position through 1956. 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.Kleber in "As Luck Would Have It", p. 400Pearce, p. 48 May had sought the support of gubernatorial candidate Earle Clements, but Clements refused and chose Wetherby as his unofficial running mate. Wetherby was unable to secure Clements' public endorsement until just before the primary, but narrowly won the primary over May and went on to defeat Republican Orville M. Howard by over 95,000 votes.Kleber in Kentucky's Governors, p. 192
Some observers called Wetherby Kentucky's first "working" lieutenant governor.Kleber in "As Luck Would Have It", pp. 400–401 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.Kleber in "As Luck Would Have It", p. 401 Clements also made Wetherby executive secretary of the State Democratic Central Committee, which allowed Wetherby to make many important political contacts.
Governor of Kentucky 1950–1955 Partial term (1950–51) On Nov. 27, 1950, Clements was sworn in as senator for the remainder of an unexpired term, vacating the office of governor and filling it with Wetherby. One of his first actions was to call a special legislative session for March 6, 1951, for the purpose of allocating the state's $10 million budget surplus. Among the expenditures approved in the special session were increases in teachers' salaries, a topic on which Clements had been more conservative, and state benefits for the needy and government employees.Harrison in The Kentucky Encyclopedia, p. 946 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 but his wife and children vetoed the idea.Wetherby oral-history interview, Nov. 1, 1979, University of Kentucky With the support of Beauchamp, who slated with him for lieutenant governor, he ran for his own term as governor.
1951 gubernatorial election Among the potential candidates for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 1951 was former governor A. B. "Happy" Chandler, who was about to be released as baseball commissioner.Kleber in "As Luck Would Have It", p. 403 Chandler and Clements were factional foes, and the possibility of a Chandler candidacy provided the Clements faction with the impetus to unite behind Wetherby to prevent Chandler from gaining the nomination. Ultimately, Chandler did not seek the nomination and, despite implying that Clements controlled Wetherby, Chandler endorsed Wetherby on May 15, 1951.Kleber in "As Luck Would Have It", p. 405 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.Pearce, p. 52
In the general election, Wetherby faced Republican Court of Appeals Judge Eugene Siler.Kleber in "As Luck Would Have It", p. 406 Siler was a fundamentalist Christian who claimed that the state government was full of corruption, and only he could stop it. Citing the gambling in Northern Kentucky, bribery accusations against members of Clements' and Wetherby's administrations, and a 1951 scandal involving the University of Kentucky men's basketball team, he referred to Frankfort as "our Nineveh on the Kentucky River". Wetherby countered Siler's accusations of corruption by removing one of the officials accused of bribery from office.Kleber in "As Luck Would Have It", p 407 He deployed the newly organized Kentucky State Police to counter organized crime in Campbell and Henderson counties. To further discourage crime, he supported legislation to revoke the alcohol licenses of establishments that allowed gambling. Siler's pro-temperance and anti-Catholic views played well in the state's rural areas, but cost him the vote of the state's growing urban population.Harrison in A New History of Kentucky, p. 402 Wetherby won a full term by 58,331 votes—a margin of 54.6%-45.4%.
Full term (1951–55) Early in Wetherby's term, the state's revenues were inflated by the Korean War.Kleber in Kentucky's Governors, p. 195 Having adopted a pay-as-you-go program for the state, he was forced to raise additional revenue after the war ended. He 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.
Because three members of Wetherby's close family had been killed in automobile accidents on the state's roadways, improving roads was a high priority for him.Kleber in "As Luck Would Have It", p. 409 Using revenue from a 2-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax passed under the Clements administration, Wetherby authorized the building, re-building, or re-surfacing of nearly of roads during his administration. The most important of these was the state's first toll road, the Kentucky Turnpike, connecting Louisville and Elizabethtown.Pearce, p. 54 He encouraged President Dwight D. Eisenhower to construct a federal toll road connecting the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. Calls for major highway work from other political leaders persuaded Eisenhower to endorse the long-discussed Interstate Highway System. Improved roads brought increased tourism, which Wetherby supported by increasing funding to the state park system and adding Breaks Interstate Park, a new park owned jointly by Kentucky and Virginia.Kleber in "As Luck Would Have It", p. 410 Wetherby also brought national attention to Kentucky as prime hunting and fishing land by conducting his own personal sporting excursions in the state.