Lawrence Wetherby - Later Life

Later Life

Both Clements and Wetherby endorsed Bert T. Combs to succeed Wetherby as governor. Wetherby had named Combs to the Kentucky Court of Appeals in 1951 to fill a vacancy created by the death of Judge Roy Helm. Happy Chandler, Clements' old foe, ran against Combs in the primary and painted him as a pawn of "Clementine" and "Wetherbine", his derogatory nicknames for Clements and Wetherby. In fact, Chandler ran the entire campaign not just against Combs, but against Clements and Wetherby as well. He charged both Clements and Wetherby with extravagant spending in their administrations. Among his allegations were that Clements had purchased a $20,000 rug for his office and that Wetherby had paneled his office with African mahogany. Chandler promised that, if elected, he would use "good, honest Kentucky wood" in his office and that all Kentuckians would be invited to the capitol to walk on the $20,000 rug. Ultimately, invoices showed that no $20,000 rug had been purchased by Clements and Wetherby's paneling had been purchased from and installed by a local contractor. Chandler's charges may have been inaccurate, but they were effective; he defeated Combs in the primary and went on to win the general election.

Following his term as governor, Wetherby resumed his private law practice. In 1956, Senator Alben Barkley unexpectedly died of a heart attack. The timing of his death meant that the state would elect two senators in 1956—Clements' term was expiring and now Barkley's seat was vacant. President Eisenhower convinced former senator and ambassador John Sherman Cooper to be the Republican candidate for the seat, hoping Cooper's immense popularity in the state would help his own re-election bid. Barkley's death occurred so late in the year that there was not time for a Democratic primary to choose the party's candidate for the open seat. The Democratic state committee chose Wetherby, who was only six months removed from his term as governor.

Neither Wetherby nor Clements enjoyed the support of Governor Chandler. Coupled with this, Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson suffered a heart attack during the campaign, and as majority whip, Clements assumed the role of acting majority leader. This took him away from the campaign trail for extended periods of time. What time he was in the state, he campaigned for his former lieutenant governor, Wetherby. In the general election, Cooper defeated Wetherby by 65,000 votes and Clements lost to Thruston Ballard Morton by about 7,000 votes. It was the first time Clements had lost a race in thirty years, and Kentucky Democrats would not elect a senator again for another sixteen years.

After this defeat, Wetherby moved to Franklin County and secured a position at Brighton Engineering with help from his old primary opponent, Bill May. From 1964 to 1966, he was a delegate to an assembly charged with revising the state constitution. In 1965, May backed Wetherby in his campaign for the Kentucky Senate. He won the election, defeating the candidate favored by Chandler, and was chosen president of that body from 1966 to 1968. He was so effective in this position that the state's 1966 budget was debated for only ten days before passing by a vote of 31–5 in virtually the same form as it was presented.

After his service in the state senate, Wetherby returned to Brighton Engineering, where he eventually became a vice-president. He died March 27, 1994 of complications from a broken hip. He is buried at the Frankfort Cemetery. The administration building at Western Kentucky University and a gymnasium at Morehead State University were named in his honor.