William B. Stansbury

Stansbury was elected Mayor of Lousville in 1977. Among the accomplishments of his tenure, was bringing the Louisville Redbirds, a minor league baseball team, to the city.[1] He also focused heavily on downtown development, including the beginning of construction on the Kentucky Center for the Arts and revitalizing the Louisville Galleria.[1][4]

Stansbury became unpopular for being out of town with a woman named Mary Ellen Farmer during a firefighters' strike in 1978.[8] Initially, he had claimed to be in Atlanta for a conference, but later admitted his true whereabouts.[9] The scandal caused him to grow unpopular, and lead to a probe being launched into him.[10] At one point, polling showed that 56% of the people of Louisville wanted him out of office.[11] Not helping matters, Stansbury also appeared before a federal grand jury to testify about alleged campaign finance violations.[12] Also at the time, there was an ongoing Democratic schism at the time. Stansbury had been considered a party favorite, dating back to his 1977 win.[1] But the Louisville Board of Aldermen was increasingly filled with younger and more liberal Democratic politicians, elected post-Watergate.[8] As a result, the schisms weakened Stansbury's position.

Over the next year, his political capital would take further hits. 1979 saw Stansbury accused by gubernatorial candidate Carroll Hubbard for coercing city employees to back Terry McBrayer for Governor.[13] In August, Stansbury divorced from his wife of 33 years Dorothy.[14] In September, the Louisville Board of Aldermen voted 10–2 in favor of a resolution calling for the mayor to resign.[15] Not long after, he was subjected to an impeachment attempt. In response, Stansbury vetoed the measures that would allow the process to go through, calling the process a "vendetta".[16] The process was eventually thwarted by court rulings denying investigators access to Stansbury's records and the ability to subpoena witnesses.[7][1] Capping off the year, in December, Governor-elect John Y. Brown called for his resignation.[17] In spite of all this, Stansbury refused calls for him to resign.[18] That said, he largely withdrew from the public eye after these events.[1] Barred from running again due to term limits, Stansbury served out the remainder of his term, and was succeeded by his predecessor Harvey Sloane.[19]

After his tenure in office ended, Stansbury returned to practicing law and was a hearing officer for state government.[20] He also became a state legislature lobbyist in 1982.[1] In 1983, he married Mary Ellen Farmer, the woman with whom he went out of town in 1978.[7]