Bert Combs

Bert T. Combs
A color portrait of a white-haired man in his early fifties wearing a suit
Justice of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals
In office April 5, 1967 – June 5, 1970
Nominated by	Lyndon B. Johnson
Preceded by	Shackelford Miller, Jr.
Succeeded by	W. Wallace Kent
50th Governor of Kentucky
In office December 8, 1959 – December 10, 1963
Lieutenant	Wilson W. Wyatt
Preceded by	A. B. "Happy" Chandler
Succeeded by	Edward T. Breathitt
Personal details
Born	August 13, 1911 Manchester, Kentucky
Died	December 3, 1991(1991-12-03) (aged 80) Powell County, Kentucky
Resting place	Beech Creek Cemetery
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Mabel Hall Helen Clark Rechtin Sara Walter
Alma mater	University of Kentucky
Profession	Lawyer
Awards	Bronze Star Medal Military Merit Medal of Philippines
Military service
Branch/service	U.S. Army
Years of service	1943–1946
Rank	Captain
Battles/wars	World War II

Bertram Thomas Combs (August 13, 1911– December 3, 1991) was a jurist and politician from the U.S. state of Kentucky. After serving on the Kentucky Court of Appeals, he was elected the 50th Governor of Kentucky in 1959 on his second run for the office. Following his gubernatorial term, he was appointed to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals by President Lyndon B. Johnson, serving from 1967 to 1970.

After being decorated for his service under General Douglas MacArthur during World War II, Combs returned to Kentucky and his law practice. In 1951, Governor Lawrence Wetherby appointed him to fill a vacancy on the Kentucky Court of Appeals. Later that year, he was elected to a full term on the court, defeating former governor Simeon S. Willis. Kentucky's Democratic Party had split into two factions by 1955 when Earle C. Clements, the leader of one faction, chose Combs to challenge A. B. "Happy" Chandler, the leader of the other faction, in the upcoming gubernatorial election. Combs' uninspiring speeches and candidness about the need for more state revenue cost him the election. Chandler, who went on to win the governorship, had promised that he would not need to raise taxes to meet the state's financial obligations, but ultimately, he did. This damaged Chandler's credibility and left Combs looking courageous and honest. Consequently, Combs was elected governor in 1959, defeating Harry Lee Waterfield, Chandler's choice to succeed him in office. Early in his term, Combs secured passage of a three percent sales tax to pay a bonus to the state's military veterans. Knowing a tax of one percent would have been sufficient, he used the excess revenue to enact a system of reforms including expansion of the state's highway and state park systems. He also devoted much of the surplus to education, and was called the "education governor" in some circles.

Following his term in office, Combs was named to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals by President Johnson. He served for three years before resigning to run for governor again in 1971. He lost in the Democratic primary to Wendell H. Ford, his former executive secretary. In 1984, Combs agreed to represent sixty-six of the state's poor school districts in a lawsuit challenging the state's system of financing public education. The suit, Rose v. Council for Better Education, resulted in the Kentucky Supreme Court declaring the state's entire system of public schools unconstitutional. In response, the Kentucky General Assembly drafted a sweeping education measure known as the Kentucky Education Reform Act in 1991. On December 3, 1991, Combs was caught in a flash flood as he returned home from his law office. His body was found in the Red River near Rosslyn, in Powell County, the following morning. His cause of death was listed as hypothermia.

Early life

Bert Combs was born in the Town Branch section of Manchester, Kentucky on August 13, 1911. He was one of seven children born to Stephen Gibson and Martha (Jones) Combs. The Combs family was one of the oldest in the United States. John Combs, the family patriarch, arrived in Jamestown, Virginia in 1619, and in 1775, Benjamin John Combs came westward from Virginia into Clark County, Kentucky. He was followed into Kentucky in 1790 by two of his brothers, including Jack Combs, Bert Combs' great-grandfather.

Bert Combs' father, a part time logger and farmer, was active in local politics, despite being a Democrat in a heavily Republican county. His mother was a teacher, and impressed upon her children the importance of a good education. Bert obtained the first six years of his education at the two-room Beech Creek grade school, then attended Oneida Baptist Institute in nearby Oneida, Kentucky. Later, he and his sister began riding a donkey every day to Clay County High School. At age 15, he graduated as valedictorian of his class. In 1929, he enrolled at Cumberland College (then a junior college) in Williamsburg, Kentucky, which he attended for two years. He financed his education at Cumberland by sweeping floors and firing furnaces in campus buildings.

After leaving Cumberland, Combs worked as a clerk for the state highway department for three years in order to earn enough money to attend law school. He then matriculated to the University of Kentucky College of Law, where he was managing editor of the Kentucky Law Journal. In 1937, he graduated second in his class, earning a Bachelor of Laws degree. Upon graduation, he was inducted into the Order of the Coif, the highest honor given a law graduate.

Later in 1937, he was admitted to the bar and began his practice in Manchester. That same year, he married Mabel Hall. The couple had two children – Lois Combs Weinberg and Thomas G. "Tommy" Combs. Tommy suffered from a form of mental retardation, and Combs started a class for individuals with mental retardation in Floyd County, in part so Tommy could attend the class.

In 1938, Combs moved his practice to Prestonsburg. He later explained the move from his hometown: "I had too many kinfolks and friends in Manchester, and they all expected me to handle things as a favor... Then they'd get their feelings hurt if I charged them. I was taking in a lot of cases, but not sending out many bills."

On December 22, 1943, Combs enlisted as a private in the U.S. Army for service in World War II. He received his basic training at Fort Knox. Early in his military career, he was assigned to teach cartography at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Aberdeen, Maryland. Later, he attended Officer Candidate School, and attained the rank of captain. He received additional training in Ann Arbor, Michigan and joined the Judge Advocate General's Corps. On July 1, 1945, he joined General Douglas MacArthur's forces in the South Pacific. He served as chief of the War Crimes Investigating Department in the Philippine Islands, conducting tribunals for Japanese war criminals. Upon his discharge in 1946, he was awarded the Bronze Star and the Military Merit Medal of Philippines.

After the war, Combs returned to his legal practice in Prestonsburg. Together with J. Woodford Howard, he formed the law firm of Howard and Combs. He served as president of the Junior Bar Association of Kentucky in 1946 and 1947. In many of his cases, Combs represented coal companies in worker's compensation cases; frequently, Carl D. Perkins, later a U.S. Representative, served as legal counsel for the mine workers.

Political career

Combs began his political career with his election to the office of city attorney in Prestonsburg in 1950. Later, he became Commonwealth's Attorney for Kentucky's 31st Judicial District, serving from 1950 to 1951. In April 1951, Governor Lawrence Wetherby appointed him to fill a vacancy on the Kentucky Court of Appeals caused by the death of Judge Roy Helm. Later that year, he sought a full eight-year term on the court. His opponent was Simeon S. Willis, a popular former Republican governor who previously sat on the court. Combs won the election by a vote of 73,298 to 69,379.

1955 gubernatorial race

A black and white photo of a man in his fifties wearing a suit

Happy Chandler, Combs' opponent in the 1955 gubernatorial race

Former Kentucky governor A.B. "Happy" Chandler, having become the leader of a faction of the state's Democratic Party, announced his intention to seek a second term in 1955. Members of the anti-Chandler faction scrambled to find a candidate to oppose him. The most likely candidate was sitting Lieutenant Governor Emerson "Doc" Beauchamp, but Beauchamp was not a good campaigner and his ties to boss-dominated Logan County gave the faction pause. Instead, Earle C. Clements, the leader of the anti-Chandler faction, selected Combs, who resigned from his position on the Court of Appeals to make the race.

In Combs' first speech of the primary campaign, he admitted that the state needed to raise $25 million in new revenue and that a sales tax should be considered. Chandler, the more experienced politician, attacked Combs for this suggestion, maintaining that an experienced governor like himself would not need to raise taxes. Combs' speech was also attacked as dry and uninspiring, partially because he read it verbatim from prepared notes. "And you said I couldn't give a speech," Doc Beauchamp later complained to Clements. Hugh Morris, chief of the Louisville Courier-Journal's Frankfort bureau, commented that "Combs opened and closed his campaign on the same night".

With little but Combs' inexperience to run against, Chandler portrayed Combs as a pawn of former governors Clements and Lawrence Wetherby, whom he derisively called "Clementine" and "Wetherbine". He accused both administrations of wasteful spending, specifically attacking the construction of the Kentucky Turnpike and Freedom Hall as unnecessary expenditures. Some of Chandler's attacks were more personal in nature. When Clements had been governor, Chandler charged, he had spent $20,000 on a new rug for his office. He then attacked Wetherby for using African mahogany to panel his office, claiming that if he had been in office, he would "use good, honest Kentucky wood". Though receipts later showed that carpeting for the entire first floor of the capitol had cost only $2,700 and that Wetherby's paneling had been purchased from and installed by a Kentucky contractor, Chandler's charges remained effective at keeping the Combs campaign on the defensive.

Two weeks before the primary, Combs secured the endorsement of former Vice President Alben Barkley, but he opined that the endorsement came too late to help him much. Chandler defeated Combs in the primary by a vote of 259,875 to 241,754 and went on to win his second term as governor. Combs returned to Prestonsburg, set up a savings and loan company, and re-established his law practice. During the four years of Chandler's term, Combs accepted a number of speaking engagements, but otherwise remained out of the public eye. Meanwhile, the state's need for funds compelled Chandler to raise the state sales tax and other taxes, despite his campaign promises not to do so. Consequently, Chandler lost credibility and Combs gained a reputation as being a courageous, forthright, and honest politician for having acknowledged the state's financial need during the campaign.

Governor of Kentucky

Barred by the state constitution from seeking consecutive terms, Governor Chandler endorsed his lieutenant governor, Harry Lee Waterfield, to succeed him. The anti-Chandler faction was split between Combs, their candidate from four years earlier, and Wilson Wyatt, who had managed Adlai Stevenson's presidential campaign in 1952. In January 1959, Earle C. Clements held an all-night meeting at the Standiford Airport Hotel in Louisville in which he brokered a deal whereby Combs would run for governor and Wyatt for lieutenant governor. Clements promised Wyatt his support in future races.

In the campaign against Waterfield, Combs attacked the Chandler administration. He was especially critical of a rumor which held that Chandler had placed a two percent assessment on state employees' salaries and stored the funds in a Cuban bank so they could not be traced. According to the rumor, when Fidel Castro seized power as a result of the Cuban Revolution, the funds Chandler had deposited in Cuba were lost. Chandler countered on Waterfield's behalf with charges that Combs was a "Clements parrot". Having united the anti-Chandler base, Combs defeated Waterfield by a margin of 25,000 votes and went on to defeat Republican nominee John M. Robsion, Jr. by a landslide of 180,093 votes. This was a record margin for a governor's race in Kentucky, and was the second highest margin of victory for any election in the state, trailing only Franklin D. Roosevelt's margin of 185,858 over Herbert Hoover in 1932. Combs was the first governor elected from Eastern Kentucky since Flem D. Sampson in 1927 and was the first veteran of World War II to hold the office.

One of Combs' first official actions as governor was to call a special session of the legislature on December 19, 1959. The subject of the session was the revision of Kentucky's constitution. Calling a constitutional convention required that two successive legislative sessions approve putting the issue of a convention on the ballot. The call then had to be approved by Kentucky voters. The constitution in force had been ratified in 1891, and despite near-universal agreement by legal scholars that it was badly in need of updating, Kentucky voters had rejected calls for a constitutional convention in 1931 and 1947 and had only approved 19 amendments since 1891. Combs wanted to address the issue during his four-year term, hence the haste in calling the special legislative session, which easily approved the call. In the subsequent regular legislative session, the measure was approved again. Combs signed the measure and the question of a constitutional revision was put on the ballot. In November 1960, however, Kentucky voters defeated the measure by a margin of almost 18,000 votes. This vote was the closest Kentucky has come to revising the 1891 constitution, which remains in effect today.

During the campaign, Combs had advocated a progressive platform that included increased funding for education, highways, parks, industry, and airports. Soon after his election, he won approval for a three percent sales tax to pay a bonus to military veterans, although he could have funded the bonuses with a one percent tax. He had deftly asked for the larger tax in order to fund his other priorities. As a result of the sales tax, Combs presided over the state's first billion-dollar budget. One study showed that, during the period from 1957 to 1962, Kentucky doubled its per capita expenditures, growing its appropriations faster than any other state. Combs ensured the continuance of the sales tax (and its associated revenue) by holding large public relations events for each tax-funded project that was completed, declaring in dedication speeches that the sales tax had made the project possible.

Kentucky lagged far behind other states in the area of education. The state had one of the highest dropout rates in the nation, and was second only to Arkansas in the number of one-room schools. Fewer than half of the state's high school graduates went on to college. Teachers educated in Kentucky quickly left because of higher salaries available in other states. Combs' proposed budget used money from the new sales tax to increase school funds by fifty percent and establish the state community college system (now the Kentucky Community and Technical College System). It also increased funding for free textbooks by more than $3 million and allocated another $2 million to vocational education. It allocated over $5 million to the state universities for new buildings and another $10.5 million to fund completion of the Albert B. Chandler Hospital, a facility at the University of Kentucky named in honor of Combs' political foe. Because of his contributions to education, Combs was sometimes referred to as "the education governor".

The state's roads were also in poor condition. The Automotive Safety Foundation found that two-thirds of Kentucky's federal roads were below standards for existing traffic demands. It further found that twenty percent of the state's major city streets were inadequate, and another fifty-five percent would be soon due to increasing traffic. Half of the state's secondary roads were unfit for modern industrial traffic. To address these problems, Combs issued $100 million in bonds to increase funding for highways. Combs appointed Earle C. Clements as state highway commissioner to oversee the correction of the road issues. Among the new roads constructed by the Combs administration was the Mountain Parkway, connecting Combs' native Eastern Kentucky to Central Kentucky. Due to generous funding in Combs' budget, Kentucky finished its portions of the Interstate Highway System much sooner than surrounding states like Virginia and Tennessee.

Combs also won approval of a $10 million bond issue to benefit the state park system. At the time, the system consisted of 10 large parks and 16 smaller ones. These parks had poor lodging and few amenities. Combs combined the bond issue with $10 million in revenue bonds and effected major renovations at all of the state's parks. Though his dreams of seeing privately-owned tourist facilities spring up around the parks did not come to fruition, out-of-state tourism to Kentucky more than doubled during Combs' administration, accounting for about 60 percent of state park visitors and 53 percent of the overnight visitations to the parks. Journalist John Ed Pearce recounts that Kentucky natives began to complain that they could not get reservations in the parks during peak seasons and called for limitations on the number of out-of-state visitors or a reservation system that favored Kentuckians, although nothing ever came of these complaints.

The floral clock in Frankfort

On April 10, 1961, Combs appropriated $50,000 from the governor's contingency fund to construct a floral clock on the lawn of the state capitol. Combs had seen a similar clock in Edinburgh, Scotland, and believed it would be a colorful addition to the capitol grounds. In a subsequent gubernatorial campaign, Happy Chandler mocked the clock, declaring "Well, they don't say it's half past 2 in Frankfort anymore. They say it's two petunias past the jimson weed." Chandler's derision became the minority view in time, however; according to John Ed Pearce, the clock became one of the most talked-about and visited tourist attractions in the state and the most visited place in Frankfort.

Combs created a merit system for state government workers, ensuring that officials could not be hired or fired for political reasons. This provision attracted more well-qualified individuals to public service careers. Such careers were made even more attractive when, in 1962, the state courts declared that the constitutional limitation on the salaries of state employees could be interpreted to mean limited salaries adjusted for inflation. The new-found attractiveness of government jobs meant increased potential for corruption, and Combs, recognizing this, demanded that state employees stick strictly to the rules governing their offices. In one instance, Combs ordered a state audit of Carter County superintendent Heman McGuire, who was known to use his office for political gain. While Combs did not have the authority to remove McGuire directly, the audit showed McGuire's misappropriation of funds and abuse of power. The state school board investigated these findings and removed the county school board members from office; the replacement board members then ousted McGuire from office.

In 1961, a group of citizens from Newport, Kentucky asked Combs for help in cracking down on crime in their city. Just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, Newport had gained a reputation as a haven for prostitution, gambling, and illegal sales of alcohol. After receiving an affidavit from the citizens, Combs sent agents from the department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to the city. They cited six bars for violating laws governing liquor sales, and instructed Attorney General John B. Breckinridge to prosecute four local officials for failure to enforce the laws. When allegations of civil rights violations in a related trial surfaced, U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy sent federal Justice Department officials to Newport, prompting the resignation of the sheriff and a circuit judge. Two other local officials were barred from office for four years.

Some of Combs' crackdowns on corruption were politically damaging, and including the so-called "truck deal". In 1961, a news story broke that claimed the state was about to purchase some dump trucks at a very favorable rate from one of Combs' former campaign officials. The deal was seen by some as a political payoff orchestrated by Highway Commissioner Clements. In the interest of preserving his reputation as an honest governor, Combs canceled the proposed deal. This angered Clements, who took Combs' action as a public rebuke. Clements did not immediately resign, but the incident caused a rift between him and Combs that never fully healed. Later, Clements did resign his post, ostensibly to work on the presidential campaign of his friend, Lyndon Johnson. Thereafter, he worked against Combs at every opportunity, even joining with Happy Chandler to ensure Wilson Wyatt's defeat in his 1962 race for the Senate, a reversal of his previous promise to support Wyatt.

Combs also formed the state's first Human Rights Commission and ordered the desegregation of all public accommodations in Kentucky. The latter action was commended in a letter to Combs from President John F. Kennedy. In 1961, Combs was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Kentucky, and on February 17, 1962, he received an award from Keep America Beautiful for his work to clean up Kentucky's highways, including securing passage of a bill requiring that auto junkyards near major roadways be screened from view by fences.

Among Combs' other accomplishments as governor were the requiring of voting machines in state elections and passage of a law making the assessment of state employees for political campaign funds a felony. At the end of his term, Combs backed Edward T. Breathitt to succeed him as governor. Breathitt defeated Happy Chandler in the Democratic primary, then went on to defeat Republican Louie B. Nunn in the general election. It was the only time in the 20th century that a Kentucky governor's selected successor won election.

Later political career

Following his term as governor, Combs returned to his legal practice. He was a charter member and chairman of the Eastern Kentucky Historical Society and a trustee at Campbellsville College. In 1963, he was awarded the Joseph P. Kennedy International Award for "outstanding contributions and leadership in the field of mental retardations." He was named Kentucky's outstanding attorney in 1964, and in the spring of that year, he served as a visiting professor in the Political Science Department at the University of Massachusetts. In 1965, he was inducted into the University of Kentucky's Hall of Distinguished Alumni.

On January 16, 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated him to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, replacing Shackelford Miller, Jr. The Senate confirmed the nomination on April 5, 1967. He resigned the judgeship on June 5, 1970 to seek a second term as governor. In the Democratic primary, Combs lost to Wendell H. Ford, who had served as his chief administrative assistant during his gubernatorial term. Following this defeat, Combs joined the Louisville law firm of Tarrant, Combs, and Bullitt (later Wyatt, Tarrant, and Combs). He resumed his representation of large coal companies, drawing the ire of author Harry M. Caudill, who asserted that Combs claimed to represent the powerless while actually representing the powerful.

Later life

Combs and his first wife, Mabel Hall, divorced on July 18, 1969. On August 30, 1969, he married Helen Clark Rechtin; this marriage ended in divorce in 1985. On December 30, 1988, he married his law assistant, Sara Walter.

Combs eventually retired from politics, but maintained an office in Frankfort. He was active in the formation of the Rural Housing and Development Corporation and served on the Council on Higher Education. He also served on President Jimmy Carter's General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament.

Rose v. Council for Better Education

On October 3, 1984, the Council for Better Education asked Combs to represent it in a legal challenge to Kentucky's school financing system, which it claimed unfairly discriminated against poorer school systems in the state. Combs felt the lawsuit would be difficult to win and could cause retaliation against his other clients by state government officials. He needed this lawsuit "about like a hog needs a side saddle", he would later claim; nevertheless, he agreed to take the case if the Council could convince thirty to forty percent of the state's school boards to join it. The Council eventually persuaded 66 of the 177 school boards to join. Working pro bono, Combs assembled a legal team that included Kern Alexander, a Kentucky native and education law expert who was named president of Western Kentucky University in November 1985.

Combs first attempted to gain legislative concessions that might preclude the need for a lawsuit. Governor Martha Layne Collins proposed an education reform agenda and called the legislature into special session in mid-1985 to consider it. The legislature enacted a corporate income tax to raise $300 million aimed at reducing class sizes, but the Council was seeking more fundamental structural changes to the system and deemed the increased funds insufficient to equalize its standing with the more affluent school districts. Dissatisfied with the results of the special session, Combs and the Council filed their suit, Rose v. Council for Better Education, on November 20, 1985. The governor, state superintendent, state treasurer, leaders of both houses of the state legislature, and every member of the state board of education were named as defendants in the case.

The defendants' request for a summary judgment dismissing the case was not granted, and the trial began in Franklin circuit court on August 4, 1987. During the trial, a new state superintendent was elected. The new superintendent, John Brock, announced that his office would drop its defense and side with the Council, a major blow to the defense. On May 31, 1988, Judge Ray Corns found in favor of the plaintiffs, declaring that the school finance system was "unconstitutional and discriminatory". Two days later, the defense announced that it would appeal the ruling to the Kentucky Supreme Court, but recently-elected governor Wallace Wilkinson refused to join the appeal and supported Judge Corns' ruling.

Opening arguments in the appeal began December 7, 1988. The defense argued that the Council lacked standing to bring the suit; Combs rebuffed this argument and cited statistics showing Kentucky's standing as the most illiterate state in the nation to show how inequitable financing had adversely affected the state's students. On June 8, 1989, the court handed down a 3–2 ruling declaring Kentucky's entire public school system unconstitutional and giving the General Assembly until the end of their next legislative session, which would convene in January 1990, to create a replacement. Of the ruling, Combs said "My clients asked for a thimble-full, and [instead] they got a bucket-full".

The court gave nine minimum standards required for a constitutional school system. In response to the court's ruling, the General Assembly passed the 1990 Kentucky Education Reform Act, which radically altered Kentucky's school system, providing mechanisms to equalize funding among school districts and implementing some of the toughest accountability standards in the United States. Of the legislature's actions, Combs opined "Kentucky has now, by reason of this legislation, decided to become educated—and we have embarked on a crusade for that purpose. Don't be surprised if we should within the next decade develop a first class, world-wide educational system."

Death and legacy

Combs left his law office during a flash flood in Lexington about 5:30 PM on December 3, 1991. He was reported missing hours later, and the following day, he was found dead of hypothermia in the Red River near Rosslyn, in Powell County. Combs was buried in the Beech Creek Cemetery in Manchester.

The Bert T. Combs Mountain Parkway, which extends roughly eighty miles in Eastern Kentucky, was named in honor of the former governor. In addition, Bert T. Combs Lake, an artificial lake constructed in 1963 in Clay County, is named for him. On April 20, 2007, two life-sized statues of Combs were dedicated—one in Stanton, Kentucky near the parkway that bears his name and another in the county courthouse in Prestonsburg. Combs' widow, Sara Walter Combs, became the first woman to serve on the Kentucky Supreme Court in 1993 and currently sits as chief judge on the Kentucky Court of Appeals, also a first for a woman. Combs' daughter, Lois Combs Weinberg, unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Mitch McConnell for his Senate seat in 2002.

References

Sources

• "Bert T. Combs". Hall of Distinguished Alumni. University of Kentucky Alumni Association. Retrieved 2009-11-04.
• "Bert T. Combs Lake" (PDF). Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. Retrieved 2009-12-15.
• "Bertram Thomas Combs (1911–1991)". History of the Sixth Circuit. U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Retrieved 2009-11-04.
• Bosworth, Matthew H. (2001). Courts As Catalysts : State Supreme Courts and Public School Finance Equity. Albany State University of New York Press. ISBN 9780791450130.

• Combs, Bertram Thomas at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
• "Combs Rose to Pinnacle From Plain Beginnings". Lexington Herald-Leader. Knight-Ridder News Service. 1991-12-05. p. A1. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
• "District Report of "Official" Election Night Tally Results". Kentucky Board of Elections. Retrieved 2009-12-08.
• Dove, Jr., Ronald G. (1991). "Acorns in a Mountain Pool: The Role of Litigation, Law, and Lawyers in Kentucky Education Reform". Journal of Education Finance. 17.
• "Governor Bert T. Combs Statue Project". Appalachian Heritage Alliance. Retrieved 2009-12-07.
• Harmon, David G. (2001). A tribute to Clay County veterans. Turner Publishing Company. ISBN 1563117738. Retrieved 2009-11-04.
• Harrison, Lowell H. (1992). "Combs, Bert T.". In Kleber, John E. (ed.). The Kentucky Encyclopedia. Associate editors: Thomas D. Clark, Lowell H. Harrison, and James C. Klotter. Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0813117720.
• Harrison, Lowell H. (1997). A New History of Kentucky. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 081312008X. Retrieved 2009-06-26. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• "History of the Kentucky Unified Court System". Kentucky Court of Justice. 2006-08-17. Retrieved 2010-01-25.
• "Kentucky Court of Appeals to hear oral arguments June 19 and 23 in Bowling Green". Kentucky Court of Justice. 2009-06-16. Retrieved 2009-12-15.
• "Kentucky Governor Bert Thomas Combs". National Governors Association. Retrieved 2009-11-04.
• Pearce, John Ed (1987). Divide and Dissent: Kentucky Politics 1930–1963. Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0813116139.
• Powell, Robert A. (1976). Kentucky Governors. Danville, Kentucky: Bluegrass Printing Company. OCLC 2690774.
• Robinson, George William (2004). "Bert T. Combs". In Lowell Hayes Harrison (ed.). Kentucky's Governors. Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0813123267.
• Saxon, Wolfgang (1991-12-05). "Bert T. Combs, 80, Dies in Flood; Was Kentucky Governor in 60's". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-11-04.

Further reading

• Combs, Bert (1991). "Creative constitutional law: the Kentucky School Reform Law". Harvard Journal on Legislation. 28 (2): 367–378.
• Robinson, George William (1991). Bert Combs the politician: an oral history. Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0813117402. Retrieved 2009-11-04.