Martha Layne Collins, first woman elected governor of Kentucky, has died

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Martha Layne Collins, Kentucky’s first and only woman elected governor, died Saturday. She was 88 years old.

The Democrat’s most visible legacy is a growing Toyota automobile assembly plant, arguably the greatest industrial success of its time and the linchpin of her economic development strategy. He also worked for years to reform the state’s public education system.

“When I became governor, you had a lot of priorities, but when I sat down and thought about it, education always came back to be the first thing to start with,” the former teacher explained in a 1992 interview with the Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky. “I feel like I had an impact on education and creating new jobs, and I hope we made the people of Kentucky feel good about themselves.”

Collins served as governor from 1983 to 1987, at a time when Kentucky governors were limited to single terms.

Gov. Andy Beshear’s office announced her death, calling her a “powerhouse” and “an extraordinary woman who made an undeniable difference.”

Republican Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said that as a father of two daughters, he applauds her “service to Kentucky and breaking the glass ceiling to show there are no limitations in our Commonwealth.”

Collins was in the national political spotlight in the summer of 1984 as chairwoman of the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco. She was interviewed by Walter F. Mondale, the party’s presidential candidate, as a possible running mate, but Mondale ultimately chose a different woman: Representative Geraldine Ferraro of New York.

There was a cloud over Collins’ administration (her husband’s financial dealings) and it erupted into a full-blown scandal with her indictment in July 1992.

via News

As a witness at her husband’s trial, she presented the image of a governor blind to the exploitation of her office by her husband and a handful of campaign cronies who had been installed, at her insistence, in key positions. The former governor claimed she stayed away from her husband’s businesses and was unaware that the couple’s net worth increased 700% during her tenure.

“He was doing his business and I was running the government,” Collins said.

Bill Collins was finally convicted in 1993 of extorting underwriters who handled state bond issues.

The late governor’s son, Steve Collins, reached by phone, declined to comment but said he would have more to say later. Services are not yet complete, he said.