Retired U.S. Sen. Wendell Hampton Ford, the self-styled "Boy from Yellow Creek" who became governor of Kentucky and assistant majority leader of the U.S. Senate in a 33-year political career, died early Thursday, Jan. 22, 2015.
He was 90.
Ford had announced on July 18, 2014, that he was battling lung cancer.
Ford, who never lost a race, served in public office from 1965 to 1999 - first as a member of the Kentucky Senate, then as lieutenant governor, governor and U.S. senator.