LEXINGTON — (TNS) Gov. Martha Layne Collins, the first and only woman to serve as governor of Kentucky, died Saturday, Nov. 1.

She was 88 years old.

Collins was only the third woman in the United States to be elected to a gubernatorial office, defeating Republican Jim Bunning to serve from 1983 to 1987.

She chaired the Democratic National Convention in 1984 and was considered by presidential candidate Walter Mondale as a running mate.

One of Collins’ most enduring achievements was luring Toyota to Georgetown, a move that created thousands of jobs and has had a lasting economic impact on the region.

Collins said in a video shared by the Kentucky Women’s History Project that she “had to convince voters that I not only had good ideas and experience, but that a woman – a woman – could lea

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