Thelma Stovall

Thelma Stovall
Thelma Stovall in 1983 while Commissioner of Labor in the Cabinet for Governor John Y. Brown Jr.
47th Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky
In office December 9, 1975 – December 11, 1979
Governor	Julian Carroll
Preceded by	Julian Carroll
Succeeded by	Martha Layne Collins
Secretary of State of Kentucky
In office January 1972 – January 1976
Preceded by	Kenneth F. Harper
Succeeded by	Drexell R. Davis
In office January 1964 – January 1968
Preceded by	Henry C. Carter
Succeeded by	Elmer Begley
In office January 1956 – January, 1960
Preceded by	Charles K. O'Connell
Succeeded by	Henry C. Carter
Kentucky State Treasurer
In office 1968–1972
Preceded by	Emerson Beauchamp
Succeeded by	Drexell R. Davis
In office 1960–1964
Preceded by	Henry H. Carter
Succeeded by	Emerson Beauchamp
Member of the Kentucky House of Representatives
In office 1950
Personal details
Born	Thelma Loyace Hawkins (1919-04-01)April 1, 1919 Munfordville, Kentucky
Died	February 4, 1994(1994-02-04) (aged 74) Louisville, Kentucky
Spouse(s)	Lonnie Raymond Stovall
Parents	Addie Mae (Goodman) and Samuel Dewey Hawkins
Occupation	politician, labor and civil rights activist

Thelma Loyace Hawkins Stovall (April 1, 1919 – February 4, 1994) was a pioneering female Southern politician who won several statewide elective offices in Kentucky, capping her career as the 47th Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky (1975–1979) under the administration of her fellow Democrat, Governor Julian Carroll.

Stovall was born in Munfordville, Kentucky. She moved with her mother and little sister to Louisville when she was eight years old.

At the age of 15, she started working for the Brown and Williamson Tobacco Corporation to support her family during the Great Depression. She became involved in union politics in young adulthood and remained close to Kentucky labor unions throughout her career. She was elected secretary of the Tobacco Workers International Union, Local 185, and held that position for eleven years. She graduated from Louisville Girls' High School; studied law at LaSalle Extension University in Chicago and attended summer school at the University of Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky University, earning her degree from La Salle Extension University.

In 1936 she married Lonnie Raymond Stovall. She was a national committee member for the Young Democrats of Kentucky from 1952 to 1956 and served as the organization's first woman president from 1956 to 1958.

Stovall won election to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1950 and was re-elected twice. She served as president of the Kentucky Young Democrats, 1952–1956. Stovall was elected Secretary of State of Kentucky in 1956, 1964 and 1972, and Kentucky State Treasurer in 1960 and 1968. Stovall served in those two offices continuously for five straight terms, 1956–1975, thereby becoming (with Frances Jones Mills and Drexell R. Davis) among the best-known practitioners of "musical chairs" office holding in the time when Kentucky's constitution prohibited any statewide officials from serving consecutive terms in the same office.