By Steve Flairty
NKyTribune columnist
I’ll always keep fond memories of Judge Ray Corns, who died last week at the age of 89. Over the years, I’ve written about hundreds of good and brave Kentuckians. Judge Corns certainly stands among the highest in esteem, and a person that future generations in our state will not forget.
Judge Ray Corns (Photo provided)
In 1988, he gave the ruling in Franklin County Circuit Court that Kentucky’s method of school financing failed to provide equal funding for public schools across the state. The ruling was later upheld, in 1989, by the Kentucky Supreme Court and set Kentucky’s state legislature on a path to remedying the situation, resulting in the enactment of The Kentucky Educational Reform Act (KERA) soon after. The Act tackled school funding and made a wide variety of other changes in an attempt to improve schools. Education had been often neglected throughout our history.
I interviewed Judge Corns seven years ago for this column, and it quickly struck me that he was a humble, almost self-deprecating man who had simply tried to do the right thing in 1988. He wasn’t looking for stardom. He wouldn’t allow me to brag to him about his noted historical work–or of him personally. We became casual friends in the following years, often stopping to extend pleasantries in the post office or streets of Versailles, where he lived.
On those chance meetings around town, I always wondered if others knew just how important the man was in the course of Kentucky’s heritage.
Judge Corns doing monologue at WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour (Photo provided)
Why will I not forget him? By reflecting on Judge’s life, I’m inspired by these elements of his legacy:
• He was an overcomer, a case of one growing up poor in a small dot on the map, Epworth, in Kentucky’s Lewis County, who worked his way through Berea College after attending under-financed schools in his county, like many around the state at the time. He never forgot his upbringing, and he used it as fuel for his passion to serve.
• Judge Corns acted courageously to present a strong ruling that challenged precedence in such a significant way, and he did so to bring the better good for the state’s citizens. A similar ruling likely would have occurred sometime in the future, but the time had come, and he knew it.
• While working in political positions during his career, he gained a reputation for working with Republicans though he was a registered Democrat. He became good friends with Republican Larry Forgy and others of the party. Judge Corns told me in our interview: “I have good friends on both sides of the aisle. I don’t think either party has a monopoly on virtue.”
Judge Corns with family and a friend (Pictures courtesy of April Corns Knox)
• Judge Corns had a disarming sense of humor and was in big demand as a speaker. For nineteen years, he did a warmup comedy routine for WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour. He was fun to be around, and that drew people to him and helped him influence important issues. Referring to his early schooling, he said: “We didn’t have a great chemistry lab. It consisted of two glass beakers and a pitcher, and we broke the pitcher.”
• Though KERA has seen challenges and changes lately to its early goals, it was landmark legislation that laser-focused on the state’s educational needs, perhaps as never before done. Judge Corns and his ruling in 1988 was strong impetus for the focus. The Commonwealth was sorely in need, and Judge Corns delivered.
A daughter, April Knox, stated perhaps the finest compliment anyone might be paid. “One of Ray’s most prominent traits was his universal kindness,” she said. “He saw only the good in people, even if it took a lot of hard work to find it. Unless a person hurt children or animals, he could find good in them.”
Yep, Judge Ray Corns had a whole lot of that good in him. May many more come along to be the same.
