11/04/2025
Martha Layne Collins, the first and only woman to have served as Governor of Kentucky, passed away at 88 on November 1.
She was born in the small town of Bagdad, Shelby County, in 1936. She started her career as a schoolteacher but shifted to politics in the 1970s. She spent several years working her way up the political ladder and was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1979. After running a successful campaign, she became governor in 1983. She was the first woman to be elected governor of the state and the highest-ranking Democratic woman in the United States.
As governor, Collins worked to increase funding for educational reform. She also incentivized Japan to bring a Toyota plant to Kentucky. On May 26, 1988, the first vehicle rolled off the production line at the Toyota plant in Georgetown—and since then, 14 million more vehicles have followed. The plant is Toyota’s largest vehicle manufacturing plant in the world.
Kentucky saw huge economic growth under Gov. Collins. She left the office of governor in 1987 at the end of her term.
On February 27, 2020, Gov. Collins made one of her final public appearances: She was a panelist at the Louisville Forum’s dinner “Women’s Suffrage Centennial: What it Means for Kentucky Women Today,” held at the Frazier History Museum as part of our Suffrage exhibition.
“I’m really proud of the women of Kentucky,” Collins told the audience. “You’ve got women all over the state [who] really serve their fellow man. And they are educated, and they are trained and dedicated, and they are hard working. And I think it’s wonderful. I’m proud to be a woman. I’m proud to be one of the crew.”
Our thoughts are with her family.
