Lawrence Wetherby
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Lawerence Winchester Wetherby (January 2, 1908 - March 27, 1994) served as Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky and as Governor of Kentucky upon the resignation of Governor Earle C. Clements as Clements went to the United States Senate. Born in 1908 in Middletown, Kentucky, Wetherby won a full term as governor in the 1951 election. After serving as governor Wetherby served in the Kentucky Senate and was President Pro Tempore of the Kentucky Senate in 1966.
As governor, Wetherby increased salaries and benefits for teachers and state employees, created a Department of Mental Health, secured the state's first laws regulating strip mining, and oversaw construction of new toll roads and fairgrounds facilities. Wetherby also secured school funding mechanisms that helped the state's poorer districts.
In 1954-55 Wetherby served as chairman of the Southern Governor's Conference and urged the southern governors to support peaceful implementation of the Supreme Court's school desegregation order. He died in 1994 at the King's Daughters Memorial Hospital in Frankfort, Kentucky. He is buried at the Frankfort Cemetery in Frankfort, Kentucky.
The Administration building at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green was named after this governor.
| Preceded by: Earle C. Clements |
Governor of Kentucky 1950–1955 |
Succeeded by: Happy Chandler |
| Preceded by: Kenneth H. Tuggle |
Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky 1947–1950 |
Succeeded by: Emerson Beauchamp |
| Preceded by: Earle C. Clements |
Democratic nominee for Governor of Kentucky 1951–1951 |
Succeeded by: Happy Chandler |
| Governors of Kentucky |  |
|---|---|
| Shelby • Garrard • Greenup • Scott • Shelby • Madison • Slaughter • Adair • Desha • Metcalfe • J. Breathitt • J. Morehead • Clark • Wickliffe • Letcher • Owsley • Crittenden • Helm • Powell • C. Morehead • Magoffin • Robinson • Bramlette • Helm • Stevenson • Leslie • McCreary • Blackburn • Knott • Buckner • Brown • Bradley • Taylor • Goebel • Beckham • Willson • McCreary • Stanley • Black • Morrow • Fields • Sampson • Laffoon • Chandler • Johnson • Willis • Clements • Wetherby • Chandler • Combs • E. Breathitt • Nunn • Ford • Carroll • Brown Jr. • Collins • Wilkinson • Jones • Patton • Fletcher
Kentucky also had two Confederate Governors: George W. Johnson and Richard Hawes. |
| Lieutenant Governors of Kentucky | |
|---|---|
| Bullitt • Caldwell • Slaughter • Hickman • Slaughter • Barry • McAfee • Breathitt • J. Morehead • Wickliffe • M. Thomson • Dixon • Helm • J. Thompson • Hardy • Boyd • Jacob • Stevenson • Carlisle • Underwood • Cantrill • Hindman • Bryan • Alford • Worthington • Marshall • Beckham • Thorne • Cox • McDermott • Black • Ballard • Breathitt, Jr. • Chandler • Johnson • Myers • Tuggle • Wetherby • Beauchamp • Waterfield • Wyatt • Waterfield • Ford • Carroll • Stovall • Collins • Beshear • Jones • Patton • Henry • Pence |
