Simeon Willis

Simeon Slavens Willis
Governor of Kentucky
In office December 7, 1943 – December 9, 1947
Preceded by	Keen Johnson
Succeeded by	Earle Chester Clements
Born	December 1, 1879 Aid Township, Lawrence County, Ohio
Died	April 2, 1965 (aged 85) Frankfort, Kentucky
Resting place	Frankfort Cemetery
Spouse(s)	Ida Lee Millis Willis (married 1920-1965, his death)
Children	Sarah "Sally" Willis Meigs Namesake grandson: Simeon Willis Meigs (1947-2004)
Occupation	Attorney

Simeon Slavens Willis (December 1, 1879 – April 1, 1965) was the 46th Governor of his adopted state of Kentucky. With service for a single term from 1943 to 1947, Willis was the only Republican elected as governor of Kentucky between 1927 (Flem Sampson) and 1967 (Louie B. Nunn).^[1]He was the fourth of five Kentucky Republican governors in the 20th century.

Background[edit]

Willis was the youngest of nine children of John H. Willis (1836-1906) and the former Abigail Slavens (1841-1900), hence his middle name.^[2]The family relocated from Lawrence County, Ohio, to settle in Kentucky. John Willis, however, later returned to Ohio and was a pioneer in the charcoal industry.^[3]

Political life[edit]

After briefly working in professional education and journalism, Willis passed the bar exam with private study and was admitted to the bar in 1901. He became interested in politics, but his early races for office were unsuccessful with the exception of his four-year stint as the city solicitor in Ashland, Kentucky. In 1927, newly-elected Republican Governor Flem Sampson appointed Willis to the Kentucky Court of Appeals, then the highest court in the state. Willis won a full four-year term on the court in 1928, but he was unseated in 1932, a strongly Democratic year. He returned to his law practice. In 1943, he was unopposed for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.

Willis scored a narrow victory over the Democrat J. Lyter Donaldson (1891-1960) by proposing the elimination of the state income tax. Democratic majorities in both houses of the legislature opposed most of Willis' initiatives. A surplus developed in the Kentucky budget at the end of World War II. Willis and the legislators disagreed on how to spend the excess funds. Willis could not deliver on his campaign pledge to eliminate the income tax because legislators spent far more than he had proposed. He did manage to increase funding for education and the construction of five hospitals to handle tuberculosis patients. He created a Commission on Negro Affairs and then appointed the first African American to the state Board of Education. Willis worked to increase state aid to pay out-of-state tuition to minorities who had been denied admission to professional programs in the then segregated state universities.^[4]

Following his term as governor, Willis served on various state boards and commissions, but failed in his only attempt to return to elected office, when in 1952, he challenged later Governor Bertram "Bert" Thomas Combs (1911-1991) for a seat on the state Court of Appeals.^[4]

Family and legacy[edit]

In 1920, Willis married the former Ida Lee Millis (1897-1978), whose maiden name coincidentally rhymed with her married name. The couple had a daughter, Sarah "Sally" Willis Meigs (1921-2016), who was well-known through her work in the Episcopal Church and in the field of historical preservation through the Kentucky Heritage Council. In 1944, Sally, who was born in Ashland, married United States Army Air Forces Captain Henry Meigs, II (1921-2014), later a circuit judge in Frankfort. She was the only daughter of a governor to have married in the Governor's Mansion in Frankfort. The Meigses had a son, Simeon Willis Meigs (1947-2004). They also reared two of Henry's nephews, William and John, as their own. The Willises and the Meigses are interred at Frankfort Cemetery.^[5]

The Simeon Willis Memorial Bridge over the Ohio River in Ashland is named in his honor.

References[edit]