Katherine Graham Peden (January 2, 1926 – January 8, 2006) was the first woman appointed as the Commissioner of Commerce in

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

. Peden was engaged in economic growth policy-making at the national and state levels during the 1960s and 70s. She was appointed to advisory positions by United States Presidents

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...

Lyndon Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

. and

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...

during a time that few women were selected to serve in these positions. She was the first woman in Kentucky to win a statewide Senate primary. In 1969 she was appointed to the board of directors of

MeadWestvaco MeadWestvaco Corporation was an American packaging company based in Richmond, Virginia. It had approximately 23,000 employees. In February 2006, it moved its corporate headquarters to Richmond. In March 2008, the company announced a change to sta ...

, then called Westvaco, becoming one of the first women in the nation named to a

Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along ...

company board of directors. The company credited Peden for their decision to build a major plant near

Wickliffe, Kentucky Wickliffe is a home rule-class city in Ballard County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 688 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Ballard County. Wickliffe is part of the Paducah, KY- IL Micropolitan Statistical Area. Hist ...

, on the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

in far

western Kentucky Western Kentucky is the western portion of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It generally includes part or all of several more widely recognized regions of the state. ;Always included * The Jackson Purchase, the state's westernmost generally recogniz ...

Early life and education

Katherine Graham was born in

Hopkinsville, Kentucky Hopkinsville is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Christian County, Kentucky, United States. The population at the 2010 census was 31,577. History Early years The area of present-day Hopkinsville was initially claimed in 1796 b ...

in 1926. Her father, William Edward Peden (1887–1973), was a construction supervisor; and, her mother, Mary Gorin Peden (1890–1972), was a school teacher. She graduated from Hopkinsville High School. She was a member of the First Christian Church of Hopkinsville. Her professional career started in 1944 when she went to work at radio station

WHOP (AM) WHOP (1230 kHz) is an AM radio station broadcasting a news–talk format. Licensed to and serving Hopkinsville, Kentucky, United States, the station serves the Clarksville–Hopkinsville area. The station is currently owned by Forcht Broadcas ...

. She became general manager of the station and owner of

WNVL WNVL (1240 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Regional Mexican music format. Licensed to Nashville, Tennessee, United States, the station is currently owned by Mark Janbakhsh, through licensee TBLC Media, LLC. The station signed on in 1947 a ...

Nicholasville, Kentucky Nicholasville is a home rule city in and the county seat of Jessamine County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 31,490 during the 2020 U.S. Census, making Nicholasville the 10th-largest settlement in the state. Since the late 20th ce ...

. She also worked as the national sales manager for five

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

television stations.

National and State Leadership

Federation of Business and Professional Women's Club

Peden, first a member of the Hopkinsville local chapter, was elected the national president of National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Club (BPW) in 1961.

First woman commerce commissioner 1963

Having served successfully as his campaign manager, Peden was appointed by Kentucky Governor Edward T. Breathitt as Commerce Commissioner in 1963. Her departmental reforms and targeted campaign to recruit businesses to Kentucky led to the journal ''

BusinessWeek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...

'' coining her work as "Pedenblitz." By the end of her four years in that position, "150,000 new jobs had been created, unemployment in Kentucky was cut in half and personal income had increased by 30 percent."

President Kennedy appointment to Commission on Status of Women

In 1963, President

appointed Peden to the

President's Commission on the Status of Women The President's Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW) was established to advise the President of the United States on issues concerning the status of women. It was created by John F. Kennedy's signed December 14, 1961. In 1975 it became the ...

established in 1961.

President Johnson appointment to Kerner Commission 1967

Peden was the only woman on the

Kerner Commission The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, known as the Kerner Commission after its chair, Governor Otto Kerner Jr. of Illinois, was an 11-member Presidential Commission established in July 1967 by President Lyndon B. Johnson in to in ...

that investigated the race riots in the United States in the mid 1960s.

U.S. Senate campaign 1968

In May 1968, Peden won the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate over

John Y. Brown Sr. John Young Brown (February 1, 1900 – June 16, 1985) was an American attorney and politician. He was a state representative for nearly three decades, serving one term as speaker of the Kentucky House of Representatives and as majority floor lead ...

of Lexington and other candidates. That summer she gave a speech at the

1968 Democratic National Convention The 1968 Democratic National Convention was held August 26–29 at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Earlier that year incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson had announced he would not seek reelection, thus making ...

in Chicago. Peden lost the

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

to Republican

Marlow Cook Marlow Webster Cook (July 27, 1926 – February 4, 2016) was an American politician who served Kentucky in the United States Senate from his appointment in December 1968 to his resignation in December 1974. He was a moderate Republican. He ...

of Louisville by a 51.4 to 47.6 percent margin. In 1968 Peden started her own company, Peden and Associates, which specialized in industrial and community development and brokerage.

President Carter appointment 1978

President Jimmy Carter appointed her in 1978 to the Executive Committee of the White House Conference on Balanced Growth and Economic Development.

Death and legacy

Peden died in

Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a city in Kentucky, United States that is the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, Fayette County. By population, it is the List of cities in Kentucky, second-largest city in Kentucky and List of United States cities by popul ...

on January 8, 2006, after a long illness. She is buried at Riverside Cemetery near her parents' graves in

. The

Phelps Dodge Phelps Dodge Corporation was an American mining company founded in 1834 as an import-export firm by Anson Greene Phelps and his two sons-in-law William Earle Dodge, Sr. and Daniel James. The latter two ran Phelps, James & Co., the part of the ...

Company was recruited by Peden to Hopkinsville and upon the development of the first Pembroke Road Industrial Park, a street is named in her honor. In 1996, the Industrial Development Research Council, an association of corporate and real estate executives and development professionals now known as the International Development Research Council, designated her "Master Professional"—the first woman with this title. In 2003, the Kentucky Commission on Women named her as a Kentucky Women Remembered honoree.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Peden, Katherine Graham 1926 births 2006 deaths Political office-holders in Kentucky People from Hopkinsville, Kentucky Kentucky women in politics Kentucky businesswomen 20th-century American women 20th-century American people 21st-century American women