LEXINGTON — He was rich but died broke, he was brash but mourned simply, and he never finished a year of college but will be remembered for education reform.

        Former Gov. Wallace Wilkinson's funeral was held Tuesday afternoon in Lexington, with only the state flag that draped his casket giving any sign he once held Kentucky's highest office.

Wilkinson

        Mr. Wilkinson, 60, died Friday of lymphatic cancer.

        His administration approved measures that helped local officials promote Northern Kentucky as the northern point of the state's “Golden Triangle.”

        When Mr. Wilkinson became governor in 1987, Northern Kentucky was focused on a cluster of depressed river cities and had a major hazard in the “Death Hill” stretch of Interstate 75.

        By the time his term ended in 1991, Delta Air Lines had expanded into Hebron, the AA Highway (Alexandria-Ashland) was completed and Death Hill had been rebuilt.

        State Rep. Jim Callahan, D-Wilder, said the Delta expansion and rebuilding of Death Hill were two of Mr. Wilkinson's greatest accomplishments. Mr. Callahan was one of only three current Northern Kentucky lawmakers who served while Mr. Wilkinson was governor.

        “I think overall he did a good job for Kentucky,” Mr. Callahan said. “He had a strong willpower, and he liked to be combative.”

        “By and large, he enjoyed fighting, and he got into a lot of them,” Danny Briscoe, one of Mr. Wilkinson's closest political advisers, said at the Lexington funeral.

The casket of Wallace Wilkinson is carried from Broadway Christian Church after his funeral Tuesday in Lexington. (Associated Press photo) | ZOOM |

        One of those fights produced the 1990 Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA), generally considered one of the most significant milestones in Kentucky in the 20th century.

        “He was a fighter for education,” said his predecessor, former Gov. Martha Layne Collins.

        He also created the Kentucky Lottery — his one campaign issue having been to legalize the lottery to fund education reform.

        He built roads to areas long neglected by the state, particularly in southern, eastern and western Kentucky.

        Gov. Paul Patton, who ordered state flags flown at half-staff Tuesday, was an honorary pallbearer at the funeral.

        The Rev. Jim Bird of the Broadway Christian Church, who spoke at the service, said Mr. Wilkinson's life was one to be celebrated.

        “For you see, Wallace lived; he lived. He didn't walk through this world, he marched,” the Rev. Mr. Bird said.

        Though he is credited with fixing the stretch of I-75 from Fort Wright to the Ohio River, the project was mired in scandal and ended up costing taxpayers $57 million — $10 million more than originally expected.

        He is also credited with construction of a Northern Kentucky University dormitory, which led to an investigation into campaign finance violations that cost the former governor $74,000.

        After leaving office, Mr. Wilkinson launched one of the 1990s' most-touted Internet start-ups, ecampus.com, made millions on paper in the dot-com craze and died bankrupt, having moved to Florida to fight lawsuits from investors who included Ohio's Dave Thomas of Wendy's.

       The Associated Press contributed to this report.
       

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