LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Martha Layne Collins, the first and only woman elected governor of Kentucky, died Saturday. She was 88.
The Democrat’s most observable legacy is a sprawling Toyota auto assembly plant – arguably the greatest industrial success of his time and the linchpin of her economic development strategy. She also worked for years to overhaul 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 was always the first thing to start with,” the former teacher said in a 1992 interview with the Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky. “I feel like I’ve made a difference in education and in creating new jobs. I hope we’ve made Kentuckians feel good.”
Collins served as governor from 1983 to 1987, at a time when Kentucky governors were narrow to a single term.
Gov. Andy Beshear’s office announced her death, calling her a “powerhouse” and “a remarkable woman who made an undeniable difference.”
Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell said in a statement that as Kentucky’s first female governor, Collins “was known for breaking barriers.”
“Governor Collins was a tireless advocate for all levels of education in Kentucky, and that passion carried her throughout her life,” McConnell said. “It is with deep sadness that Elaine (Chao) and I learned of the passing of Governor Collins and we extend our sincerest condolences to her husband Bill and their two children.”
Republican Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said that as a father of two daughters, he praised her “service to Kentucky and breaking through the glass ceiling to show that there are no limitations in our commonwealth.”
Collins entered the national political spotlight in the summer of 1984 as chair of the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco. She was interviewed by Walter F. Mondale, the party’s presidential nominee, as a possible candidate to run, but Mondale ultimately chose another woman – Rep. Geraldine Ferraro of New York.
There was a shadow over Collins’ administration – her husband’s financial dealings – and his indictment in July 1992 caused a real scandal.
(*88*) a witness in her husband’s trial, she presented a picture of a governor blind to the exploitation of her office by her husband and a handful of campaign cronies who had been installed in key positions at his urging. The former governor claimed she stayed away from her husband’s business and was unaware that the couple’s net worth had increased 700% during her time in office.
“He ran his business and I ran the government,” Collins said.
Bill Collins was eventually convicted in 1993 of extorting money from underwriters who handled the issuance of government bonds.
At the 1986 groundbreaking of the Toyota plant, Collins said Kentucky had “entered a new era in which we will be more closely connected to the global economy.” Kentucky had won a bidding war against other states for the plant, which cost $800 million at the time and employed 2,500 people to assemble Camry sedans. Parts suppliers and other automobile manufacturers then emerged in the state.
Her government officially estimated the value of government incentives to the Japanese automaker, including the government purchase and development of the factory site, at $125 million. But debt service for the necessary bond issues pushed the total to more than $300 million, critics said. And it took a ruling from the Kentucky Supreme Court to declare that “awarding” state land to a private company does not violate the state constitution.
Collins, a native of Bagdad, a compact crossroads town in Shelby County, seemed destined for a classic Middle American, largely anonymous life. (*88*) Martha Layne Hall, the daughter of a funeral director, she won a compact beauty pageant before graduating from the University of Kentucky in 1959 and taught middle school while her husband practiced dentistry.
She got her start in politics by mastering the thankless, strenuous but indispensable art of fieldwork. She later became lively at the state Democratic headquarters in Frankfort and won her first elected office as clerk of the court in 1975. Four years later, she shocked many Democrats when she won the nomination for lieutenant governor. The state Republican Party was feeble at the time, so her primary victory amounted to an election.
The lieutenant governor had few actual duties, but Collins cut countless ribbons while her husband and others raised money and promoted the organization that would carry Collins to the Statehouse.
Reached by phone, the tardy governor’s son Steve Collins declined to comment but said he would have more to say later. Services are ongoing, he said.
