Martha Layne Collins

Martha Layne Collins

November 1, 2025

LEXINGTON , Kentucky - Former Kentucky Governor Martha Layne Collins, 88, of Lexington, died on Saturday, the 1st day of November, 2025. She was the first, and to date the only female governor of Kentucky. Serving as Governor from 1983 from 1987, she was the senior former Governor of Kentucky. She also enjoyed the distinction of being the senior former female elected governor in the nation. The sixth female elected governor, she was the third who did not follow her husband into office.

She was born on the 7th day of December in 1936 in Shelby County, Kentucky to the late Everett L. and Mary Lorena Taylor Hall. She grew up in Bagdad, attended school in Bagdad, Kentucky, graduated from the old Shelbyville High School and the University of Kentucky in Lexington. In 1959, she was the Kentucky Derby Queen, and at her death, she was also the oldest living former Derby Queen.

As a teacher, she did her student teaching at Scott County High School in Georgetown. She married Dr. Bill Collins, a graduate of Georgetown College and a student at the University of Louisville College of Dentistry. She then taught school at Fairdale High School and Seneca High School in Louisville and then at Woodford County Junior High in Versailles. In 1971, she became active in Democratic politics and the gubernatorial campaign for Wendell Ford. She was the Coordinator of Women's Activities for the Kentucky Democratic Party and served as one of the two Kentucky members of the Democratic National Committee.

In 1975, she was the last elected Clerk of the old Kentucky Court of Appeals, and in 1976, she became both the first Clerk of the new Supreme Court of Kentucky and the first Clerk of the new Court of Appeals of Kentucky. In those positions, she guided the offices through the most far-reaching changes in the history of the Commonwealth's judicial system. She created an educational package to assist county officials, school systems, and the public to understand these constitutional changes to our courts.

Elected to a term as Lieutenant Governor from 1979 to 1983, Collins sat as president of the State Senate and as both Vice-Chair and Chair of the National Conference of Lieutenant Governors. As Lieutenant Governor, Collins gained critical experience in leadership serving as the Acting Governor over more than twenty-five percent of her term. In 1983, she was elected as the first and the only female Governor of the Commonwealth.

During her tenure as Governor from 1983 to 1987 she established education reform and economic development as critical priorities and for achieving success on both fronts. Passage of a three hundred-million-dollar education reform package and the creation of a record number of jobs and unprecedented investments in economic development were highlights of the Collins administration. She was the driving force in bringing Toyota Motor Manufacturing and many other international supply companies to Kentucky. As a result of the outstanding international relationships she developed, Governor Collins was named Honorary Consul General of Japan in Kentucky and served in this position for several years.

Additionally, she expanded the Kentucky Governors Scholars Program begun by her predecessor, Governor John Y. Brown. During her administration, she created the Governors School of The Arts and the Bluegrass State Games. Her administration was also active and dedicated to many projects and initiatives in education reform, economic development, energy, and the environment.

Upon leaving the Governor's office, she had served Kentucky in the judicial, legislative, and executive branches of state government. She then served as president of St. Catharine College for six years, as the Executive-in-Residence at the University of Louisville's School of Business, and as the Director of the International Business and Management Center at the University of Kentucky's Carol Martin Gatton College of Business and Economics. Governor Collins was a Harvard University Fellow in the John F. Kennedy School of Government at the Institute of Politics in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1998, Governor Collins became Executive Scholar in Residence at Georgetown College, Georgetown, Kentucky, where she developed the Center for Commerce, Language and Culture, serving until 2013.

In 2003, Governor Collins was the recipient of the First Annual World Trade Center's Association World Trade Day Book of Honor Award for the state of Kentucky. This award is presented to a company or individual in recognition of exemplary contribution to advancing peace and stability through trade. 2004 marked a new direction for Governor Collins when she was invited to join the staff of the Kentucky World Trade Center as the new Chair and CEO. She stepped into this role officially in January 2005, and served as the Chairman of the KWTC's Board of Directors for seven years.

Governor Collins has served on the Board of Directors for Eastman Kodak Company, in Rochester, New York; R. R. Donnelley Company in Chicago, Illinois, Regional Technology Strategies, Incorporated, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and Vianix LLC, Virginia Beach, Virginia; on the Board of the old Bank of Louisville and as an Advisory Board Member of BB&T, in Louisville, Kentucky; and Women Leading Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky. She was also a member of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, and served as Kentucky's Honorary Consul-General of Japan.

She has received numerous awards throughout her career, including but not limited to the Volunteers of America Award, the special Millennium Celebration Award from the Kentucky Commission on Women, the Junior Achievement Award of the Bluegrass Business Hall of Fame Laureate, the Kentuckians of New York Award, the John C. Stennis Award, and the Flame of Excellence Award presented by Leadership Kentucky. She is in the Hall of Fame at the University of Kentucky School of Human Environmental Services, and in 2007 was named a Woman of Distinction and was a University of Kentucky Distinguished Alumnae. She was also named Rural Kentuckian of the Year by the Rural Electric Cooperatives of Kentucky. In 2021, she was presented with the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce's Woman in Leadership Award. While she has received so many thoughtful and meaningful accolades, honors, awards, most recently, she received the 2025 Henry Clay Medallion from the Henry Clay Memorial Foundation in Lexington. Her memberships also included the Isaac Shelby Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the First Families of Kentucky.

She is survived by husband of over sixty-six years, Dr. Bill Collins of Lexington, her son, Steve Collins and his wife, Diane, of Shelbyville; her daughter, Marla Collins Webb and her husband, Dudley, of Lexington; her grandchildren, Dr. Taylor Collins of Charlotte, North Carolina, Catherine Collins Messer and her husband Preston, of Birmingham, Alabama, Alex Webb and Will Webb and his wife, Mary, of Lexington, and Ellie Webb of New York, New York; her great-grandson, Eli Messer of Birmingham, Alabama; and numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins.

The former Governor will lie in state in the rotunda at the Old State Capitol at Broadway and Saint Clair in the state capital, Frankfort, Kentucky, from 12:00 P.M., until 4:00 P.M., Sunday, the 9th day of November, 2025. Funeral services will be conducted at 4:30 P.M., on Sunday, the 9th day of November, 2025. Interment will be at 1:00 P.M., Monday, the 10th day of November, 2025, in the Frankfort Cemetery.

Expressions of sympathy may take the form of contributions to:

The Governor's School for the Arts

in care of Kentucky Performing Arts Foundation

501 West Main Street

Louisville, Kentucky 40202,

The Martha Layne Collins Leadership Scholarship

Georgetown College

400 East College Street

Georgetown, Kentucky 40242,

University of Kentucky Governor Martha Layne Collins Memorial Scholarship Fund,

UK Philanthropy

Post Office Box 910628,

Lexington, Kentucky 40591-0628,

including "In memory of Governor Martha Layne Collins" on the memo line of your check.

Arrangements are under the direction of the Hall-Taylor Funeral Homes of Shelbyville and Taylorsville and condolences may be expressed at www.halltaylorfuneralhomes.com.