More than half a century after her death, Alabama has still elected only one woman as governor: Lurleen B. Wallace, the state’s 46th chief executive, who took office in January 1967 and died before finishing her term.
Her path to the governor’s office was unlike any other in state history. Born in 1926 and raised in north-central Alabama, she graduated from Tuscaloosa High School and went to work in a local store, where she met George C. Wallace. The two married in May 1943, and for the next two decades she raised four children while running campaign after campaign as her husband climbed from the state legislature to a judgeship and finally the governor’s office.
A Candidate of Her Own
Banned by term limits from succeeding himself, George Wallace eyed a 1968 presidential run — and Lurleen agreed to run for governor in his place. Early in the race she let her husband set the pace, but she soon took center stage at rallies across the state. “I’m excited, yes, but not frightened,” she told an interviewer during the campaign, adding, “If I run, I expect to win.”
In the May 3, 1966 Democratic primary she won decisively, drawing more than 480,000 votes against roughly 172,000 for former Attorney General Richmond Flowers, her closest competitor. That November she captured 63 percent of the general-election vote — 512,970 ballots — nearly double her opponent’s total.
The Baldwin County Connection
South Alabama figured prominently in her brief tenure. She made her first official visit to Baldwin County representing Gov. George Wallace in May 1966, appearing at the opening of Gulf Shores’ new tourist information center, and returned that October with the governor to speak at venues including the Baldwin County Fair in Robertsdale. Her father, Henry Morgan Burns, had worked as a crane operator in Mobile during World War II.
Cancer, first diagnosed during George Wallace’s initial term, cut her governorship short. She died in May 1968 at age 41, less than halfway through the term, leaving behind a legacy as a trailblazer for women in Southern politics.