Tom Emberton, a former Republican candidate for governor of Kentucky and later top judge of the state Court of Appeals, perished in a house fire on Thursday after rescuing his wife, according to officials.
Metcalfe County Coroner Larry Wilson stated that the fire was discovered about 3:30 a.m. Wilson stated that Emberton helped get his wife out of the house, but then he returned inside and was killed. He was in his late eighties.
According to spokesman Leigh Anne Hiatt, Kentucky Chief Justice John D. Minton Jr. announced Emberton’s death during his State of the Judiciary address.
Mayor of Edmonton Doug Smith stated that the fire was accidental.
Smith stated in a statement to WBKO-TV in Bowling Green, “Tom bravely ensured that his wife Julia reached safety, but he perished while attempting to preserve their home.”
In 1971, Emberton, a lawyer from Metcalfe County, ran for governor but lost to the incumbent lieutenant governor, Wendell Ford.
In 1987, he was appointed to the Court of Appeals. He was reelected twice and served as chief judge of the appeal court until his retirement in 2004, according to Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader of the United States Senate.
McConnell said in a statement, “Tom offered me one of my earliest experiences in the rough and tumble reality of political campaigning by recruiting me to work on his 1971 gubernatorial campaign.” He taught me invaluable lessons about public service and running as a Republican statewide candidate in Kentucky.
His children Laura Emberton Owens and Tom Emberton Jr. also survive him.
According to his alma mater, Western Kentucky University, Emberton entered after serving for four years in the United States Air Force. In 1959, Emberton was accepted to the University of Louisville School of Law after graduating from Western Kentucky University.
According to the university, in 2007, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet named a bridge in Metcalfe County in his honor.