Interview with Wendell Pace Butler, February 3, 1984

Interview Summary

Mr. Butler begins this interview giving his personal information and his educational background and explains why he left the educational sector for the political one. He recalls coming to Frankfort as part of the Clement's administration, and his relationship with Emerson "Doc" Beauchamp. He remembers the then Lieutenant Governor Wetherby holding the Extraordinary Session of the General Assembly in 1951 regarding education, himself running for Superintendent of Public Instruction, and relationship between the Kentucky Education Association and Frankfort during this time. He speaks of the Minimum Foundation Program and the support and lack thereof for it. Butler recalls the transition into the Wetherby era, and how the governor increased funding for public education by forty million dollars and continued to show his support for the reformation of education in this state. Other topics discussed include literacy in Kentucky in the 1950's the implementation of the bookmobile, and the response to the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education, 1954

Interview LC Subject

Jefferson County (Ky.) Wetherby, Lawrence W. (Lawrence Winchester), 1908-1994

Interview Rights

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Interview Usage

Interviews may be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries.