Ruby Laffoon (January 15, 1869 – March 1, 1941) was an American attorney and politician who served as the 43rd governor of Kentucky from 1931 to 1935. A Kentucky native, at age 17, Laffoon moved to Washington, D.C., to live with his uncle, U.S. Representative Polk Laffoon. He developed an interest in politics and returned to Kentucky, where he compiled a mixed record of victories and defeats in elections at the county and state levels. In 1931, he was chosen as the Democratic gubernatorial nominee by a nominating convention, not a primary, making him the only Kentucky gubernatorial candidate to be chosen by a convention after 1903. In the general election, he defeated Republican William B. Harrison by what was then the largest margin of victory in Kentucky gubernatorial history.
Dubbed "the terrible Turk from Madisonville", Laffoon was confronted with the economic difficulties of the Great Depression. To raise additional revenue for the state treasury, he advocated the enactment of the state's first sales tax. This issue dominated most of his term in office and split the state Democratic Party and Laffoon's own administration. The lieutenant governor, A. B. "Happy" Chandler, led the fight against the tax in the legislature. After the tax was defeated in two regular legislative sessions and one specially called legislative session, Laffoon forged a bipartisan alliance to get the tax passed in a special session in 1934.
Laffoon's feud with Lieutenant Governor Chandler continued throughout his term and affected the 1935 gubernatorial race. (At the time, the lieutenant governor was elected independently from the governor.) Term-limited by the state constitution, Laffoon supported political boss Tom Rhea to succeed him as governor, and convinced the Democrats to again hold a nominating convention to choose their gubernatorial nominee. This would have greatly improved Laffoon's chances of hand-picking his successor. While Laffoon was on a visit to Washington, D.C., Chandler was left as acting governor under the provisions of the Kentucky Constitution. Chandler issued a call for a special legislative session to consider a mandatory primary election bill. Laffoon rushed back to the state to invalidate the call, but the Kentucky Court of Appeals upheld it as constitutional, and the primary law was passed. Chandler defeated Rhea in the primary, and went on to succeed Laffoon as governor. Following his term in office, Laffoon returned to his native Madisonville, where he died of a stroke in 1941.
Among his gubernatorial legacies was appointing a record number of Kentucky Colonels, including Harland Sanders, who would use the title "Colonel" when he opened his chain of Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants.
Early life
Ruby Laffoon was born on January 15, 1869, in a log cabin in Madisonville, Kentucky.Harrison and Klotter, p. 362 He was the third child and only son of John Bledsoe Laffoon Jr. and Martha Henrietta (née Earle) Laffoon.Gipson, pp. 2–3 According to Laffoon biographer Vernon Gipson, his parents could not decide on a name for their new child, and for several years, referred to him only as "Bud". When he was a young child, Laffoon chose the name "Ruby" after John Edwin Ruby, a local businessman whose grocery store he frequently visited.Gipson, p. 4
The Laffoons were primarily farmers but also had some experience in politics.Gipson, p. 2 Ruby Laffoon's grandfather, John Bledsoe Laffoon Sr., migrated to Kentucky from South Carolina in 1815 and served one term in the Kentucky House of Representatives. Ruby's father, John Jr., served several terms as a deputy sheriff in Hopkins County and one term as county assessor. Ruby's uncle, Polk Laffoon, served two terms in the United States House of Representatives.Gipson, p. 3
Laffoon's early education was obtained in the public schools of Madisonville. While there, one of his teachers was his sister, Susan Isabella Laffoon, who was only 16 years old. At age 15, while plowing a field, Laffoon was kicked in the hip by a mule, requiring a six-week stay in a Nashville hospital. In the winter of the same year, he slipped on some ice and re-injured the hip. As a result of these injuries, his right leg was one-and-a-half inches shorter than his left leg, requiring him to wear special shoes and walk with a cane and a limp for the rest of his life. After his injury, Laffoon's parents decided that he could not make his living as a farmer and sent him to the private school of W. C. O'Bryan. By age 17, he was teaching in the common schools of Charleston in Hopkins County.Gipson, pp. 4–5
Legal and early political career In 1886, Laffoon moved to Washington, D.C., to live with his uncle, U.S. Representative Polk Laffoon.Powell, p. 92 There he served as a messenger in the office of Judge C. R. Faulkner, director of the pension office. In September 1887, he enrolled at Columbia Law School (asserted by Vernon Gipson to have been a prior designation for George Washington University Law School)."Kentucky Governor Ruby Laffoon". National Governors AssociationGipson, p. 8 On October 17, 1888, he matriculated to Washington and Lee University, where he earned a law degree in 1890.Gipson, p. 12 He returned to Madisonville, was admitted to the bar, and began practicing in the office of Judge William H. Yost. He became active in the Democratic Party and served as a county election officer.Gipson, p. 14 In 1892, he was elected city attorney of Madisonville over Ward Headley. In 1894, he ran for the office of county attorney for Hopkins County, but lost to Roy Salmon by seventeen votes.Gipson, p. 16
Laffoon married Mary "May" Bryant Nisbet on January 31, 1894, at, the Lucille Hotel in Madisonville. The couple had three daughters. Besides supporting her husband's political endeavors, May Laffoon was also active in politics. She was a delegate-at-large to every Democratic National Convention between 1932 and 1960, and actively campaigned for Franklin D. Roosevelt during his first run for the presidency. To supplement the family's income, Ruby Laffoon became a partner in the Madisonville branch of the Phoenix Insurance Company in 1897. He sold his interest in the company in 1901, the same year he made a second bid to become county attorney. He won the election over Thomas E. Finley by a vote of 3,335 to 2,910. In 1905, he was re-elected to his post, marking the first time in the history of Hopkins County that the county attorney had been re-elected.Gipson, pp. 14–19
In 1907, Laffoon sought the office of state treasurer. He faced no opposition in the Democratic primary, but the entire Democratic ticket was defeated in the general election.Gipson, p. 22 In 1911, he ran for state auditor, but lost in the primary to Henry M. Bosworth.Gipson, p. 24 That same year, he was elected as one of Hopkins County's delegates to the state Democratic convention.Gipson, p. 25 A bill passed in the state legislature in 1912 created a State Insurance Rating Board under the office of state auditor, and Bosworth appointed Laffoon chairman of the board due to his experience in the insurance field and as a reward for his loyalty to the party.Gipson, p. 26 In 1915, Laffoon sought the post of Commonwealth's Attorney for the Fourth Judicial District, which comprised Hopkins, Caldwell, Crittenden, and Livingston counties.Gipson, p. 27 He lost in the primary to J. Elliott Baker, but the Republican candidate, Charles Ferguson, won the general election.
In September 1918, Laffoon moved to San Antonio, Texas, where he opened a law practice and managed a citrus fruit business near Galveston. Though he had intended this to be a permanent relocation, while on a visit to family a few months later, friends urged him to return to Kentucky, and he obliged after only three months in Texas. In 1921, he sought election to the bench of the Fourth District Circuit Court. In the primary, he defeated Trice Bennett, a candidate from Princeton, and went on to face Republican incumbent Carl Henderson of Marion. In the general election on November 8, 1921, Laffoon defeated Henderson, carrying every county in the district. In his first term, only 7 percent of his decisions were reversed by the Kentucky Court of Appeals, which was a record for the Fourth District at the time. He was re-elected for a second six-year term in 1927.Gipson, pp. 28–31, 177
Governor of Kentucky In 1931, Laffoon sought the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.Harrison, p. 529 As a result of factional infighting within the Democratic party, the Democrats opted for a nominating convention instead of a primary to choose their nominee for governor.Gipson, pp. 38–39 It was the first nominating convention held by the Democrats since the Music Hall Convention that nominated William Goebel in 1899, and it was the only one held after 1903.Gipson, p. 38 The convention was held in Lexington on May 12, 1931.Gipson, p. 44 Laffoon gained the support of several important leaders within the party, including Ben Johnson, Thomas Rhea, M. M. Logan, Allie Young, and William J. Fields.Gipson, pp. 41–42 He was selected in a landslide over a myriad of candidates, including sitting lieutenant governor James Breathitt Jr.Ellis, p. 164 and Centre College football hero James "Red" Roberts."Announcements", The Davidsonian
Despite his physical disability, Laffoon waged a vigorous campaign across the state. During campaign stops, he interspersed political commentary with passages from the Bible.Ellis, p. 165 The Louisville Courier-Journal objected to his campaign style and gave a tentative endorsement to the Republican William B. Harrison, the mayor of Louisville. Dubbed "the terrible Turk from Madisonville" by former Republican governor Edwin P. Morrow, Laffoon promised that, if elected, he would remove all of the Republican officials appointed by sitting governor Flem D. Sampson from state government. He cited the failed administration of Governor Sampson and the problem-filled presidency of Herbert Hoover as reasons to elect a Democrat. In the general election, Laffoon defeated Harrison by a margin of just over 72,000 votes, the largest margin of victory for any Kentucky governor at the time.
Shortly after taking office, Laffoon organized the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels, a charitable organization of people who had been commissioned as honorary Kentucky colonels."Since 1813" During his term as governor, Laffoon commissioned 2,368 honorary colonels, the most ever by a Kentucky governor."Kentucky Colonels" His best known commission was to Harland Sanders, who used the title "Colonel" when he opened his chain of Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants. Other colonels commissioned by Laffoon included Mae West, Shirley Temple, Clark Gable, Bing Crosby, Will Rogers, Fred Astaire, Jean Harlow, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Jack Dempsey and W. C. Fields.Gipson, p. 169
Fight for a sales tax Laffoon's administration was confronted by the economic difficulties of the Great Depression. While he proposed a number of improvements, money was not available in the state budget to implement his plans. In his first full year in office, he cut $11.5 million from the state budget, but it remained out-of-balance. The state issued additional interest-bearing warrants to cover its debts. In 1931, these warrants accounted for 24.2 percent of the state's receipts; by 1932, that number had climbed to 40.2 percent. In order to raise more funds, Laffoon proposed a 2 percent state sales tax in 1932. The proposal was extremely unpopular with merchants and private citizens, and it showed little promise of passing in the General Assembly.Klotter, p. 298 On March 2, 1932, a mob of 100 anti-tax protesters stormed the governor's mansion, damaging some items inside.Gipson, p. 77 In an attempt to get the tax passed, Laffoon agreed to seek only a 1 percent tax. The proposal passed the House, but a Senate committee refused to report it to the full chamber for a vote.Gipson, p. 78