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Mary Louise Foust

Mary Louise Foust (October 15, 1909 – December 17, 1999) served three terms as the Kentucky Auditor of Public Accounts and was the first woman to run for Governor of Kentucky. She was also the first woman in the state to be a licensed attorney and a certified public accountant.^[1]

Foust was born in New Albany, IndianatoBaptist minister Rev. David T. Foust and Mary Margaret (Rippel) Foust. She would have a younger brother named David Rippel Foust. Her family moved to Shelbyville, Kentucky where she graduated high school. She received her degrees from Georgetown College and the University of Louisville School of Law and began working for the state in 1938 as a filing clerk in the Department of Revenue.^[1]

She was first elected as Auditor of Public Accounts as a Democrat in 1956 and served a four-year term. She was the first woman elected to that position.^[2] In 1963 she ran as a candidate for governor, again being the first woman to do so.^[1] She came in third in the Democratic primary behind eventual governor Ned Breathitt and Happy Chandler.^[3] In 1969, she was elected to finish the term of Clyde Conley, who had died. She was re-elected for a full term from 1971 to 1975.^[1] She ran for governor again in 1975 but lost in the Democratic primary to eventual winner Julian Carroll.^[4]

Foust had always been known as a political maverick and she became very critical of Wendell Ford and Julian Carroll.^[1] In the late 1970s she switched parties to become a Republican.

She ran for the United States House of Representatives in 1978 but dropped out of the race in favor of Larry Hopkins.^[5] 1n 1979 she won the Republican nomination to again run for state auditor but lost in the general election to James B. Graham.^[6] In 1980 she won the Republican nomination for the United States Senate race but lost in the general election to Wendell Ford.^[7]

When not in office, Foust practiced law in Shelbyville and Lexington. As a CPA, she worked with Bittner and Clark in San Francisco, United States Steel Corporation in New Albany, and Humphrey Robinson and Company in Louisville. She was licensed to practice law before the United States Supreme Court.^[1]

Foust died in Shelbyville. She was the thirteenth person to lie in state in the Kentucky Capitol Rotunda. She is buried in Floyds Knobs, Indiana.