MONTGOMERY, AL (WBRC) – Alabama Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey was sworn in as the state's 54th governor on Monday, April 10, following the resignation of Robert Bentley.
Ivey was elected in 2010 after holding the office of state treasurer for two terms.
The Auburn University graduate becomes the second female governor in the state’s history, and the first for the GOP. Lurleen Wallace, the wife of former Gov. George C. Wallace, was elected governor in 1966 when her husband was constitutionally prohibited from running for a second term, having already served two consecutive terms.
The Camden, AL, native graduated from Auburn in 1967.
She was elected lieutenant governor in 2010 and was the second woman in Alabama history to hold the post. The late Lucy Baxley served from 2003-2007.
When Ivey won re-election in 2014, Ivey became only the fourth Alabama lieutenant governor to be elected to a second term, and the first Republican.
In 2002, Ivey, 72, became the first Republican elected state treasurer since Reconstruction. She was re-elected in 2006.
As lieutenant governor, she has served as chairman of the Job Creation and Military Stability Commission, and the Aerospace States Association.
She also has been involved in Auburn University’s campaign to end child hunger.
Before her career in politics, she worked as a banker, assistant hospital administrator, high school teacher, and served as an Alabama House of Representatives reading clerk, and assistant director of the Alabama Development Office.
She is a member of First Baptist Church in Montgomery.
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