Martha Layne Collins

Martha Layne Hall was born December 7, 1936, in Bagdad, Kentucky, the only child of Everett and Mary (Taylor) Hall. When she was in the sixth grade, her family moved to Shelbyville, Kentucky, and opened the Hall-Taylor Funeral Home, with her father serving as the funeral director. Hall attended Shelbyville High School, where she was a good student and a cheerleader. She frequently competed in beauty pageants and won the title of Shelby County Tobacco Festival Queen in 1954. Having won the title of Kentucky Derby Festival Queen earlier that year, she briefly considered a career in modeling. While living in Louisville, the couple had two children, Steve and Marla. In 1966, the Collinses moved to Versailles, Kentucky, where Martha taught at Woodford County Junior High School. The couple became active in several civic organizations, including the United States Junior Chamber and the Young Democratic Couples Club. Through the club, they worked on behalf of Henry Ward's unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign in 1967. ==Early political career==

By 1971, Collins was the president of the Jayceettes; through her work there, she came to the attention of Democratic Kentucky Senate member Dee Huddleston. By the end of her term, she declared that she had visited all 120 counties in Kentucky. As lieutenant governor, Collins presided over the state Senate. Members of both major parties praised Collins for her impartiality and knowledge of parliamentary procedure in this role. ==Gubernatorial election of 1983==

Nearing the end of her term as lieutenant governor, Collins announced her intent to run for governor in 1983. With 223,692 votes, Collins edged out Sloane (219,160 votes) and Stumbo (199,795 votes) to secure the nomination. In the general election, Collins faced Republican state senator Jim Bunning, who was later elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame for his achievements as a professional pitcher. But Bunning was not personable on the campaign trail and had difficulty finding issues that would draw traditionally Democratic voters to him. His Catholicism was a political liability among the majority-Protestant voters. ==Governor of Kentucky==

In her first address to the legislature, Collins asked for an additional $324 million from the Kentucky General Assembly, most of it allocated for education. After opposition to her proposal developed among legislators during the 1984 biennial legislative session, Collins revised the tax package. She retained the corporate licensing tax increase, but replaced the sales tax and income tax modifications with a flat five percent personal income tax and phasing out the deductions for depreciation which corporations could claim on their state taxes. With the state still recovering from an economic recession and an election year upcoming, legislators refused to raise taxes. Collins eventually withdrew her request and submitted a continuation budget instead. Among the other accomplishments of the 1984 legislative session were passage of a tougher drunk driving law, and a measure allowing state banking companies to purchase other banks within the state. Consideration for vice-president By virtue of her election as Kentucky's governor, Collins became the highest-ranking Democratic woman in the nation. The only two women in the U.S. Senate at the time were Republicans, and Collins was the only woman governor of any state. At a news conference following her speech, Collins was asked again if she would be willing to be considered as the Democrats' vice-presidential candidate in the upcoming election; she replied "No, not at this time." The party appointed Collins's son, Steve as state chair. Education proposals In January 1985, Collins renewed her push for additional education funding and changes by appointing herself secretary of the state Education and Humanities Cabinet. Following the announcement, Collins and several key legislators held a series of meetings in every county, advocating for her proposed changes and seeking information about what types of changes the state's citizens desired. At the meetings, Collins was careful to separate the issues of her proposed education plan and potential tax increases. She believed that opposition to increased taxes had prevented her previous package from being enacted. After favorable reaction to the plan from legislators, she called a special legislative session to convene July 8 to consider the plan. After two weeks of deliberation, the General Assembly approved Collins's education plan, tripling the corporate licensing tax to $2.10 per $1,000 in order to pay for the package. The Assembly rejected a proposed five-cents-per-gallon increase in the state gasoline tax to finance other spending. Collins followed up her success in the 1985 special session with a push for more higher education funding in the 1986 legislative session. Lawmakers obliged by approving an additional $100 million for higher education in the biennial budget. They also approved implementation of a pilot preschool program and the purchase of new reading textbooks, but failed to act on Collins's request for an additional $3.9 million to improve the state's vocational education system. The amendment was defeated by the state's voters in November 1986, despite a Collins-led campaign in favor of it. The increased corporate tax intended to cover the cost of the increased education budget was, however, inadequate. In 1987, a plan to increase revenue through changes in the state income tax was abandoned when Wallace Wilkinson, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee who would go on to succeed Collins, announced his opposition to it. Toyota Assembly Plant In March 1985, Collins embarked on the first of several trade missions to Japan. She returned there in October 1985, and also visited China – a first for any Kentucky governor – to encourage opening Chinese markets for Kentucky goods and to establish a "sister state" relationship with China's Jiangxi province. According to published reports, the Kentucky location was chosen over proposed sites in Indiana, Missouri, Tennessee, and Kansas. The agreement with Toyota was contingent upon legislative approval of $125 million in incentives promised to Toyota by Collins and state Commerce Secretary Carroll Knicely. Given Armstrong's concerns, the administration employed general counsel J. Patrick Abell to file a friendly test case to determine the constitutionality of the incentive package. While the suit was pending, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported that the administration had failed to include the interest on the bonds used to finance the expenditures in its estimation of the cost; this, plus the cost overruns reported by the Herald-Leader, had already pushed the total cost of the package to about $354 million by late September 1986. In October, Toyota agreed to cover the cost overruns associated with preparing the site for construction. Opponents of the economic enticements for Toyota joined the state's test suit. In October 1986, Franklin County Circuit Court Judge Ray Corns issued an initial ruling that the package did not violate the state constitution, but both sides asked the Kentucky Supreme Court to make a final decision. Taub challenged the condemnation, stating that the Commonwealth did not have the right to condemn private property for the use of a for profit, public corporation. At trial, Collins became the first sitting governor of Kentucky to testify in court. She was represented by former governor Bert Combs; Taub was represented by former governor Louie Nunn. This was also the first time in the history of Kentucky that two former governors represented opposing parties in a legal action. Later, Toyota set up several assembly plants across the state; near the end of Collins's term, the state Commerce Cabinet reported that 25 automotive-related manufacturing plants had been constructed in 17 counties since the Toyota announcement. In 1987, Collins promised $10 million in state aid to Ford to incentivize the company to expand its truck assembly plant in Louisville. The state experienced record job growth under Collins's economic development plan, which included attempts to attract both domestic and international companies. The Special Fund was designated for payments to workers with occupational diseases and workers whose work-related injuries could not be traced to any single employer. A plan proposed by Democratic state senator Ed O'Daniel was expected to provide the framework for legislation considered in the session. On May 10, 1985, she was named to the University of Kentucky Alumni Association's Hall of Distinguished Alumni. She also chaired the Southern Growth Policies Board, Southern States Energy Board, and was co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission. ==Activities after leaving office==

Collins's term expired on December 8, 1987, and under the restrictions then present in the Kentucky Constitution, she was ineligible for consecutive terms. In 1988, she accepted a position as "executive in residence" at the University of Louisville, giving guest lectures to students in the university's business classes. Some faculty members publicly expressed concerns about Collins's lack of experience in academia, and she withdrew her name from consideration shortly before the new president was announced. Concurrent with her position at Harvard, Collins was named to the board of regents for Midway University in 1989; the following year, she was removed from the board of regents of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Her removal was automatically triggered after she missed three consecutive board meetings between 1986 and 1989. College officials stated that Collins was recruited for the presidency to raise the college's profile. It was alleged that he exploited this perception to pressure people who did business with the state to invest nearly $2 million with him. He was also fined $20,000 for a conspiracy charge that involved kickbacks disguised as political contributions. In 1996, Collins resigned as president of St. Catharine College to direct the International Business and Management Center at the University of Kentucky. Later that year, she was a co-chair of the Credentials Committee at the Democratic National Convention. When her contract with the University of Kentucky expired in 1998, Collins took a part-time position as "executive scholar in residence" at Georgetown College, which allowed her more time to pursue other interests. In 1999, she was named Honorary Consul General of Japan in Kentucky, a position which involved promoting Japanese interests in Kentucky, encouraging Japanese investment in the state, and encouraging cultural understanding between Kentucky and Japan. In 2001, Governor Paul E. Patton named her co-chair of the Kentucky Task Force on the Economic Status of Women. In January 2005, she became the chairwoman and chief executive officer of the Kentucky World Trade Center. She has held positions on the boards of directors for several corporations, including Kodak. ==Death==

Collins died in her sleep on November 1, 2025, at 3:00 a.m. at the Richmond Place Retirement Community in Lexington, Kentucky. She was 88. Due to a multi-year construction project at the Kentucky State Capitol, Collins would lie in state at the Old State Capitol on Sunday, November 9, 2025. Her funeral was afterwards held at the Old State Capitol the same day, family, colleagues and former and current Kentucky leaders as Governor Andy Beshear, Lieutenant Governor Jacqueline Coleman, former Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes and Collins’ former Secretary of the Cabinet Larry Hayes being among those in attendance. In 2003, Kentucky's Bluegrass Parkway was renamed the Martha Layne Collins Bluegrass Parkway in her honor; Collins also received the World Trade Day Book of Honor Award for the state of Kentucky from the World Trade Centers Association that year. In 2009, she was inducted into the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs for her contributions "to strengthening economic and cultural exchanges between Japan and the United States of America". Martha Layne Collins High School in Shelby County was named in her honor and opened in 2010. ==See also==