Bert Combs, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Bert Combs

American federal judge; governor of Kentucky

Date of Birth: 13-Aug-1911

Place of Birth: Manchester, Kentucky, United States

Date of Death: 04-Dec-1991

Profession: judge, lawyer

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Leo


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About Bert Combs

  • Bertram Thomas Combs (August 13, 1911 – December 4, 1991) was an American jurist and politician from the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
  • After serving on the Kentucky Court of Appeals, he was elected the 50th Governor of Kentucky in 1959 on his second run for the office.
  • Following his gubernatorial term, he was appointed to serve as a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit by President Lyndon B.
  • Johnson, serving from 1967 to 1970. Combs rose from poverty in his native Clay County to obtain a law degree from the University of Kentucky and open a law practice in Prestonsburg.
  • He was decorated for prosecuting Japanese war criminals before military tribunals following World War II, then returned to Kentucky and his law practice.
  • In 1951, Governor Lawrence Wetherby appointed him to fill a vacancy on the Kentucky Court of Appeals.
  • Later that year, he was elected to a full term on the court, defeating former governor and judge Simeon S.
  • Willis.
  • Kentucky's Democratic Party had split into two factions by 1955 when Earle C.
  • Clements, the leader of one faction, chose Combs to challenge former governor and U.S.
  • Senator A.
  • B.
  • "Happy" Chandler, who headed the other, in the upcoming gubernatorial primary. Combs' uninspiring speeches and candidness about the need for more state revenue cost him the primary election.
  • Chandler, who went on to reclaim the governorship, had promised that he would not need to raise taxes to meet the state's financial obligations, but ultimately he did so.
  • This damaged Chandler's credibility and left Combs looking courageous and honest in the eyes of the electorate.
  • Consequently, in 1959 Combs was elected governor, defeating Lieutenant Governor Harry Lee Waterfield, Chandler's choice to succeed him in office, in the primary.
  • Early in his term, Combs secured passage of a three-percent sales tax to pay a bonus to the state's military veterans.
  • Knowing a tax of one percent would have been sufficient, he used the excess revenue to enact a system of reforms, including expansion of the state's highway and state park systems.
  • He also devoted much of the surplus to education. Following his term in office, Combs was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit by President Johnson.
  • He served for three years before resigning and running for governor again in 1971.
  • He lost in the Democratic primary to Wendell Ford, his former executive secretary.
  • In 1984, Combs agreed to represent sixty-six of the state's poor school districts in a lawsuit challenging the state's system of financing public education.
  • The suit, Rose v.
  • Council for Better Education, resulted in the Kentucky Supreme Court declaring the state's entire system of public schools unconstitutional.
  • In response, the Kentucky General Assembly drafted a sweeping education measure known as the Kentucky Education Reform Act in 1991.
  • On December 3, 1991, Combs was caught in a flash flood while driving and was killed.

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