Julian Morton Carroll (April 16, 1931 – December 10, 2023) was an American lawyer and politician from the state of Kentucky. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 54th governor of Kentucky from 1974 to 1979, succeeding Wendell Ford, who resigned to accept a seat in the United States Senate. He last served a member of the Kentucky Senate, representing Anderson, Franklin, Woodford, Gallatin, and Owen counties from 2005 to 2021. He was the first Kentucky governor from the state's far-western Jackson Purchase region. Thelma Stovall, who served as lieutenant governor with him, was the first woman to be elected lieutenant governor of Kentucky.
After graduating from the University of Kentucky and spending three years as a United States Air Force lawyer, Carroll returned to McCracken County, Kentucky, where he gained acclaim for leading a campaign to allow the Tennessee Valley Authority to provide low-cost electricity to the county. He was elected to the first of five terms in the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1962 and served as speaker of that body from 1968 to 1970. He ran for lieutenant governor in 1971 on an informal ticket with former governor Bert T. Combs. Combs lost in the Democratic primary to Wendell Ford, but Carroll defeated his primary opponents and went on to win the general election. He was elevated to the governorship in December 1974, after Ford unseated moderate Republican U.S. Senate member Marlow Cook. Carroll won a term as governor in his own right in 1975.
As governor, Carroll increased funding for public education and promoted the use of coal as a means of alleviating the 1973 energy crisis. He also oversaw a major reorganization of the state's judicial system following voters' approval of a constitutional amendment in 1975. Many natural and man-made disasters occurred during his term in office, including the Great Blizzard of 1978 and the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire, leading to better safety practices and stricter law enforcement in the state. When Carroll left office, both he and his predecessor were under the cloud of an investigation for an alleged insurance kickback scheme, but Carroll was not convicted of any wrongdoing. In 2004, he was elected to the Kentucky Senate. Re-elected in 2008 and 2012, he won a fourth term without opposition in 2016. He announced shortly after his 88th birthday that he would not run for re-election in 2020.
Julian Carroll was born in West Paducah, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in McCracken County, Kentucky west of Paducah, Kentucky. He was the third of eleven children born to Elvie B. "Buster" and Eva (Heady) Carroll. His father was a tenant farmer, but shortly after the Ohio River flood of 1937, the family moved to Heath in McCracken County, where Buster Carroll sold tractor implements and in 1940 opened an automobile repair shop. Through his early teenage years, Carroll lived with his grandparents to help care for an ailing grandfather.
In 1949, Carroll was selected to represent Heath High School at Kentucky Boys State and Girls State, a week-long civic affairs summer camp for high school seniors-to-be. Participants in the camp create a miniature state government based on their state's actual government. At the camp, Carroll was elected governor of the miniature government. The following year, he graduated as salutatorian and student body president of Heath High School.
Carroll began dating Charlann Harting near the end of 1950. In mid-1951, they parted ways to attend college – Harting, whose family was better off financially, at the University of Kentucky and Carroll at nearby Paducah Junior College. After their first year, Carroll and Harting decided to get married. The ceremony took place on July 22, 1951, and the couple eventually had four children – Kenneth, Patrice, Bradley, and Ellyn. Ellyn, born June 27, 1975, was the first child born to a Kentucky First family while they were residing in the Kentucky Governor's Mansion.
Carroll earned an Associate degree in Arts from Paducah Junior College in 1952. That summer, the family moved to Lexington where Carroll matriculated to the University of Kentucky. He funded his further education working for the Fayette County Agriculture Stabilization and Conservation Office. In 1954, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science, and in 1956, he earned a Bachelor of Laws degree.
While in college, Carroll had received training through the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps. By graduation, he had risen to the rank of Commandant of Cadets, the highest rank of any student at the university. After graduation, he enlisted in the Air Force and was stationed at Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, Texas. For three years, he served as an Air Force attorney, then returned to Paducah and joined the law firm of Reed, Scent, Reed, and Walton. He was active in civic affairs, including membership in the United States Junior Chamber and serving as charter president of the Paducah Optimist International in 1962. He was a frequent lay speaker in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and from 1966 to 1967, served as moderator for the Kentucky Synod.
In January 1960, a group of local businessmen approached Carroll about leading a campaign to allow the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to provide electricity to McCracken County. It was proposed that the TVA could provide electricity at a much lower cost, but voters would first have to hold a public referendum on buying out Kentucky Utilities, the private power provider in the area. Carroll agreed to lead the campaign, and nine months later, voters approved the buyout by a three-to-one margin.
The TVA campaign had put Carroll squarely in the public eye in McCracken County, and in 1962, he was elected to the first of five consecutive terms representing the county in the Kentucky House of Representatives. He was chosen Speaker of the House from 1968 through 1970. In the 100-member House of Representatives, it was not uncommon for lobbyists to roam the floor freely, for members to bring their lunches to their desks, or for them to bring their friends and family members onto the floor during debate. Determined to bring a higher degree of decorum to the chamber's proceedings, Carroll opened the 1968 legislative session with a single, powerful whack of his gavel. The gavel shattered, stunning the legislators. Carroll subsequently barred outsiders from the floor during debate and forbade eating in the chamber. Carroll shattered three more gavels during the legislative session – he was finally given a sturdier one made of solid oak and Formica – but he brought order to the chamber's proceedings. At the end of the session, a member of the opposing party declared from the floor, "The decorum of this House has improved 100 percent... I must compliment the present Speaker of this House for ... eliminating the abominable practices. Today every member has a right to speak ... without fear of interruption and catcalls or being shouted down." The legislator's compliment was followed by a standing ovation for Carroll.
Carroll had considered running for the United States Senate in 1968, but dropped out of the race after just two weeks when he discovered that it would take well over $100,000 to run a competitive primary campaign. In 1971, former governor Bert Combs sought a second term as governor and chose Carroll as his informal running mate. (The governor and lieutenant governor were elected separately at the time.) Combs, an Eastern Kentucky native, sought geographic balance for the ticket by selecting Carroll, from the far-west Jackson Purchase. Combs said he would provide the needed financing, and Carroll agreed to enter the race.
Seven other Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor entered the race, the most formidable being sitting Attorney General of Kentucky John B. Breckinridge. While Combs lost to sitting Lieutenant Governor Wendell Ford in the gubernatorial primary, Carroll won the separate primary for lieutenant governor, partly on the strength of the Eastern Kentucky votes he gained from his association with Combs. Carroll went on to defeat Republican Jim Host in the general election for lieutenant governor. As lieutenant governor, Carroll chaired the Legislative Research Commission and the National Lieutenant Governors Association.