Originally published October 28, 2004 on Kentucky Commerce Cabinet News Digest.

Veteran Journalist Billy Reed to Succeed Popular Frankfort Figure.

Frankfort, KY - The little red-headed girl was six, maybe seven, when her mother asked she and her younger sister what they wanted for Christmas. The sister said, “I want a doll house.” The little red-headed girl said, “I want the White House.” And, yes, she was talking about the White House, not just a child’s toy.

And so did Phyllis Combs Liebman first declare her interest in politics and government. She was an unusual child, to say the least. She idolized President Dwight D. Eisenhower more than the cowboy matinee idol Roy Rogers, and she enjoyed political conventions on TV more than the “Howdy Doody Show.”

Inevitably, perhaps, she was destined to become the beloved and respected “Miss P,” a bulwark of the Republican political establishment in Kentucky for much of the last four decades. Even her Democratic adversaries came to appreciate her charm, her wit, and her shrewd grasp of politics.

On Friday, Oct. 29, Mrs. Liebman will retire from her job as executive director of communications in the Commerce Cabinet. Her office and her title will be assumed by veteran journalist William F. “Billy” Reed.

“But you don’t replace somebody like Phyllis,” Reed said. “She’s such a gracious, warm, generous person. I’m delighted that she’s still going to be around to provide us with her unique perspective and tremendous background.”

Indeed, “Miss P” didn’t need much arm-twisting from Commerce Cabinet Secretary Jim Host to accept a role as a volunteer advisor.

She worked under Host in the Public Information Office during Governor Louie B. Nunn’s term (1967-’71), and 33 years later allowed Host to talk her out of retirement to work for him in the administration of Ernie Fletcher, the state’s first Republican Governor since Nunn.

“She did a great job for me the first time around,” Host said, “so I wanted her with me again. Nobody knows more than Phyllis about the history and inner workings of government. Whatever is happening in Frankfort, Phyllis knows about it.”

As the “elder statesmen” of Host’s senior staff, “Miss P” proved invaluable in teaching political novices the ins and outs of state government.

“She has been an incredibly helpful mentor to me in the ways of Frankfort,” said Jerry Miller, executive director of finance for the Commerce Cabinet. “Her advice and counsel is always well-reasoned and thoughtful, whether it relates to who is related to whom, political alliances or something as simple as not wearing a tie with elephants on it when the legislature is in session.”

Journalism Was in Her Blood

Phyllis was born on August 13, 1944, at Hurst-Snyder Hospital in Hazard to Nancy and Carter Combs, Jr. Her grandfather Combs, whom she called “Popoo,” loved to tease her about her red hair, which certainly didn’t come from his side of the family.

When her father received a job offer in Michigan, the family (her siblings are sister Leslie, sister Candi, and brother David) moved to Grand Rapids, Mi., where Phyllis grew up and attended T.L. Handy High School.

On trips back to Kentucky for family holidays, her Aunt Lou would take her to The Hazard Herald, where she learned to set headlines with wooden type while standing on a box. She quickly came to love journalism almost as much as she loved Republican politics.

Although she received a scholarship in microbiology from Michigan State University, college didn’t excite Phyllis until her father took her on a business trip to Lexington and left her with her godfather’s daughter in the Kappa Kappa Gamma house at the University of Kentucky.

“I saw two basketball games in Memorial Coliseum,” she said. “On the ride back to Michigan, I told my dad I wanted to go to UK.”

So she did.

At first she declared herself to be an Elementary Education major, but gave that up after observing only one classroom. Fortunately for Phyllis, her Aunt Lou, who had risen to owner and publisher of the Jackson Times and Beattyville Enterprise newspapers, suggested she go talk to Neil Plummer, dean of the Journalism school.

“It didn’t take long for it to be a done deal,” Phyllis said.

After graduating from UK’s Journalism School, she was hired to be a beat reporter for the Frankfort State Journal. Until Phyllis, the women on the staff had been limited to writing features and running the society page. But now here was this red-headed girl, showing up to cover the courthouse, jail, union strikes, school-board meetings, and civil-rights demonstrations in Louisville.

But her love of politics proved stronger than her love of journalism, so she went to work for Nunn in his successful gubernatorial campaign against Henry Ward. After the election, Host, then the 29-year-old “boy wonder” of the new administration, put her to work in his Public Information Office.

When the Nunn administration ended in 1971, her first husband accepted a federal job in Atlanta, where Phyllis found work with the newly created Office of Public Information for the Georgia House of Representatives.

After four years in Georgia, she returned to Kentucky and took a job with the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce in 1975. Then Vic Hellard, the new director of the Legislative Research Commission, hired her to help set up the newly-created Office of Public Information for the Kentucky General Assembly.

IBM and Lexmark Get a Jewel

In 1981, IBM lured her into the private sector with a media relations position at the electric typewriter plant in Lexington. She eventually became a lobbyist for IBM, which moved her out of Kentucky because they needed her help in places such as Columbus, Ohio; Armonk, N.Y., and Rochester, Mn.

“Those years are record in my mental autobiography as my ‘Years at the University of IBM,’” Phyllis said. “I would actually pause at times incredulous that a little girl born in Hazard, Ky., could be doing the things I was doing.”

But seven years was long enough for Phyllis to be away from Kentucky.

“Coming back home in 1988, when I crossed the bridge from Indiana to Kentucky, I informed God that I was here to stay,” she said.

One reason, of course, was that she was going to marry Herb Liebman, a respected Frankfort attorney whom she had been dating for 12 years. To this day, she dotes on Liebman’s four adult children – James, an attorney; Dan, the executive editor of The Blood-Horse magazine; Michael, a computer expert in Madison, Wi.; and Ellen, a mother of three in Chicago who also has a Master of Law degree from Yale University.

A year or so after she settled back in at IBM in Lexington, her professional career took another dramatic turn.

“I was on a small team of communicators who planned and implemented the strategy for the sale of the IBM facility to a boutique merger-and-acquisition firm. After a branding research effort, Lexmark was announced between tornadoes and heavy rain in late March, 1991.”

As the new firm grew, Mrs. Liebman was invaluable as a lobbyist in Frankfort, which enabled her to get reacquainted with her first love, Republican politics. By the time she retired from Lexmark in 2000, the company was one of the world’s leading producers of computer printers and tape cartridges.

After the death of her husband in 2001, Mrs. Liebman was content to tend to her business, the “Miss P’s Kids” store on Main Street in Frankfort; care for her ailing mother, Nancy; and spend time with her family and friends.

“Many years ago, when I was truly down, both mentally and physically, Phyllis was there for me with phone calls, lunches, and an ear that listened,” says Linda Morgan, head of Capital Plaza operations. “She’s a great listener.”          

She certainly listened when Host called her back to duty in the trenches. In less than a year, she has touched the lives of everybody who has worked with her, both personally and professionally. “If my work is any more competent than it was a year ago,” says Jim Carroll of the Department of Parks, “it is because of Phyllis’ patient tutelage.”       

The Next Chapter

Earlier this year, Phyllis finally admitted to herself that she didn’t have quite the energy at 60 that she had 37 years ago as a kid fresh out of college. So she and Host worked out an agreement under which Phyllis would continue to serve the Commerce Cabinet as a volunteer advisor.

Mostly, though, she will run her children’s clothing business and go back to enjoying her family (her two sisters live and work in Central Kentucky) and her mother.    “She (her mother) is truly a gift from God after a long and very serious illness,” said Mrs. Liebman. “I don’t intend to miss that blessing.”

Nor does she intend to miss the blessings who are her grandchildren, nieces, and nephews. She dotes on them all, although she admits to being a little concerned about her niece, Jennifer, a senior at Tates Creek High and captain of the cheerleading squad.

“She’s eyeing the University of Louisville,” says Phyllis, “so I have to bite my tongue hard on behalf of all the Big Blue fans in the family.”

She never did get the White House she wanted as a child, but she got something even better: A permanent residence in the hearts of everyone who has known her, worked with her, and benefited from her kindness.

And, yes, it is incredible, when you think about it, that a little red-headed girl born in Hazard, Ky., could do all the things that Phyllis Combs Liebman has done in her splendid and remarkable career.