Louie B. Nunn

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Louie Broady Nunn (March 8, 1924-January 29, 2004), a native of tiny Park in Barren County in southern Kentucky, was his state's Governor from 1967 to 1971. Nunn was the first and only Republican governor of Kentucky after 1943 until Ernie Fletcher's election in 2003.

[edit] Early life

Park is located between Hiseville, Seymour, and Three Springs near Glasgow. Nunn attended Bowling Green Business College (now part of Western Kentucky University) and served in the United States Army. Following his military duty, Nunn attended the University of Cincinnati and then earned his law degree from the University of Louisville. He was elected county judge of Barren County at the age of twenty-nine, the first Republican ever elected to that office in the history of the heavily-Democratic county.

Nunn was married to the former Buelah Roberts. They had two children, Steven and Jennie Lou.

Nunn served as statewide campaign manager for President Dwight D. Eisenhower and U.S. Senator John Sherman Cooper. He was the Republican nominee for Governor of Kentucky in 1963, but lost in a close race to Democrat Edward T. Breathitt. Breathitt won 449,551 votes (50.7 percent) to Nunn's 436,496 (49.3 percent). Nunn was victorious in a second close race for the state's highest office four years later when he defeated Democratic nominee Henry Ward, the state highway commissioner, with 454,123 votes (51.2 percent) to Ward's 425,674 (48 percent). Nunn was endorsed in 1967 by former Democratic Governor A.B. "Happy" Chandler, the grandfather of current U.S. Representative Ben Chandler.

Nunn was not the only member of his family heavily involved in GOP politics. Along with his brother, Lee Nunn (who himself served at times as GOP leader), he was the more visible of the two brothers who together played a role during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s as dynamic in Kentucky and in national Republican politics as the roles held by the more famous Kennedy brothers of Massachusetts and by the Burton brothers in San Francisco amid Democrat national politics. Lee and Louie were both longtime friends with Governor Ronald Reagan of California. Lee Nunn lived on the old homeplace at Park, and had a small airstrip built on the farm so as to be able to commute to and from Washington and to and from Frankfort weekly during the Richard Nixon years in his twin engine private plane. He, along with Louie, served President Nixon regularly, providing guidance and private counsel at Nixon's request on matters to do with farming and rural areas and Kentucky, as well as with preparing political strategies, much as Karl Rove provides President George W. Bush. As some astute pundits have pointed out, Lee Nunn was the only member of Nixon's inner circle smart enough not to himself be tainted with the crimes of Watergate. Still, the Nixon tapes regularly contain mentions of meetings, phone conversations, and other activities among Louie Nunn, Lee Nunn, and President Nixon, on a recurring basis. [1]

[edit] Governor

As the GOP nominee for Governor himself in 1963, Louie Nunn came within 15,000 votes of victory following a hard-hitting campaign that tied his opponent, Edward Breathitt, to the Kennedys. Four years later, with campaign help from Reagan, Nunn became his state's first Republican Governor since 1943. A sign that times were changing in Kentucky was that Nunn first had to win a highly competitive Republican primary against future U.S. Senator Marlow W. Cook.

As Governor, Nunn oversaw the entry of the University of Louisville into the state's public university system and the transformation of Northern Kentucky University from a community college to a full-fledged member of the state university system. Nunn successfully lobbied the Kentucky General Assembly to increase motor vehicle licensing fees and to increase the state sales tax from 3 to 5 percent (which would thereafter be derisively known as "Nunn's Nickel"), while eliminating taxes on prescription drugs, but not food. Nunn had surprising success with the legislature, given that Democrats held substantial majorities in both houses of the Kentucky General Assembly during his term.

Nunn created controversy when he called out the National Guard to break up protests against the Vietnam War at the University of Kentucky in Lexington in May 1970. During that incident, one of the university's ROTC buildings was burned to the ground under mysterious circumstances, ostensibly in protest of the war. (A tennis court, covering all signs of the fire, quickly replaced the burned out ROTC building location.) Nunn also sent National Guard troops into Louisville, Kentucky to stop rioting related to civil rights marches in 1968. A popular recurring joke on Kentucky's liberal college campuses at the time was to ask, 'If there are fifty states, why are there only forty-nine governors?", to which the refrain would always be, 'Because Kentucky has Nunn.' Nunn's popularity continued in rural areas but took a nosedive in cities.

[edit] Later career

Nunn saw disappointment in 1972, losing a bid for the United States Senate to Democrat Walter "Dee" Huddleston of Elizabethtown. Nunn had hoped to capitalize on the popularity of President Richard Nixon, but was harmed by Democratic efforts to blame him for "Nunn's Nickel," as the 5 percent sales tax increase passed during his term as governor was nicknamed.

Nunn's last bid for office came in 1979 when he was once again the GOP nominee for Governor against Democrat John Y. Brown, Jr. Up against a multi-millionaire businessman and his former "Miss America" wife (Phyllis George), Nunn's blunt, earthy populism proved insufficient. He lost, taking 381,278 votes (40.6 percent) to Brown's 558,008 (59.4 percent). It was his last political run.

Although he never again held public office, Nunn remained a popular, respected, and active elder statesman in many of Kentucky's political and government affairs. He served on the Board of Regents of Morehead State University and Kentucky State University, and campaigned for Republican candidates until his death. Nunn was also mentioned in passing by Hunter S. Thompson in his article "The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved" as a "swinish neo-Nazi hack".[2]

At the age of seventy-four, Nunn again considered a bid for Governor in 1999, prompted by the failure of the GOP to run a known candidate. He cited personal and health issues for not making the race, and lived out his last years at the former Pin Oak Farm, his home near Versailles. Nunn frequently entertained there and kept a fairly high profile as a former Governor.

In 2003, Nunn guided the campaign of his son, State Representative Steve Nunn (R-Glasgow). Underfunded, and without the support of the GOP establishment, the junior Nunn was widely admired for his tireless campaigning and candid attention to issues, including the state budget, but ultimately ran third in a four-way race, losing to then-Congressman and later Governor Fletcher.

Interstate 65's Louie B. Nunn Cumberland Parkway highway sign near Rocky Hill, Kentucky.

Louie B. Nunn died only weeks short of his eightieth birthday after a heart attack in Versailles, Kentucky. He was buried at the Cosby Methodist Church cemetery east of Horse Cave, near the Governor's beloved homeplace of Park. During Governor Nunn's memorial service in the rotunda of the State Capitol, State Representative Lonnie Napier (R-Lancaster) stated "As long as there is a Kentucky, the spirit of Louie B. Nunn shall never die." The following was reported by political writer Pat Crowley - Boone County Republican Chairman Kenny Brown campaigned with Nunn last year during Steve Nunn's unsuccessful race for the GOP gubernatorial nomination. "Wherever we went - a courthouse, a firehouse, a restaurant, a party gathering - people came up to him and remembered him as a friend to Northern Kentucky," Brown said Friday, his voice breaking with emotion. "I was honored to know him." "Kentucky lost a true statesman," said U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Louisville Republican. "Gov. Nunn was a masterful orator and will be remembered as an icon of the Kentucky Republican Party." ^[1]

[edit] External links

The Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky Libraries[3]

[edit] Trivia

The Cumberland Parkway, a toll road running through Barren County, was renamed the Louie B. Nunn Cumberland Parkway in 2000; Nunn was instrumental in getting the parkway built in the 1970s. The main lodge at the Barren River Reservoir State Park near Lucas is also named for Nunn.

[edit] External links

• Louie B. Nunn at Find A Grave

v • d • e 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 • Beshear Kentucky also had two Confederate Governors: George W. Johnson and Richard Hawes.