Bert T. Combs, born in Clay County, practiced law in Manchester and Prestonburg and served as a captain in World War II, helping prepare evidence against Japanese war criminals. He served on the Kentucky Court of Appeals from 1951 to 1955, was governor of Kentucky from 1959 to 1963, and later was a Federal Court of Appeals judge from 1967 to 1970. Accomplishments during his administration included highways connecting eastern and western Kentucky, expansion of the state parks system, a statutory merit system for state employees, an end to segregation in public facilities, increased funding for teachers’ salaries and state universities, a 3 percent sales tax, and Kentucky Educational Television. As a senior partner in Wyatt, Tarrant and Combs, he won a ruling that led to landmark school reform legislation in 1990.