Nunn saga filled with irony, high drama

While less well-known across the state than the Nunns, the patriarch of the Ross family possessed his own rags-to-riches story.

Terrell Ross grew up in rural Fleming County, where he went to class in a one-room school building.

Amanda Ross would tell the story of the wedding of her parents — Terrell and Diana — in which family friends donated $42 for the newlyweds to honeymoon in Florida, said Martha Seagram, Amanda Ross's friend.

Diana then worked to put Terrell through Morehead State University, Seagram said. He graduated with a degree in math and taught at Fleming County High School. He later became head of the Buffalo Trace Area Development District, where he cultivated political contacts.

After landing a job at Merit Financial Corp., he and the managing director of the firm's Cincinnati office, Murray Sinclaire Jr., bought the securities firm in 1989 and turned it into Ross Sinclaire and Associates, now the sixth-largest municipal financial firm in the country. Using his contacts, Ross helped land deals to finance construction of schools and county courthouses across Kentucky.

Like Louie Nunn, Ross was a political creature.

"He would work the crowd just as much as Louie would, but differently," McBrayer said. "Louie would be in the middle of the room. Terrell was lower key."

Patriarchal effects

By the time Amanda and Steve began dating in September 2007, both had lost their fathers, who had been huge influences on them, friends of both of them say.

Terrell Ross died in October 2006, six weeks after being diagnosed with cancer.

"To watch your father die so quickly is tough," said Vince Gabbert, who worked with Amanda and Terrell Ross at Ross Sinclaire. "She already had a huge drive to succeed. But after Terrell's passing, that really drove her even more."

Louie Nunn had a fatal heart attack in January 2004, less than a year after advising his son on his failed campaign for governor.

Louie and Steve had a falling out during the divorce between Louie and Beula Nunn in 1994. Louie, in a letter filed with the divorce, accused Steve of attacking him. But the truth is more complicated, said one lawyer involved in the case.

"I know in my experiences in representing Steve that the aggressiveness and confrontation came from the other side, not from Steve," said Bowling Green lawyer Charles English.

Steve's second wife, Tracey Damron, helped patch up the father-son relationship.

And Damron said Louie's death changed Steve. She said he never physically abused her, but he treated her coldly from that point on.

Not long after Louie Nunn's death, Damron went out of town for a week. She later learned that, during her absence, Steve began a relationship with a younger woman, Damron said. Damron and Nunn divorced about three years ago.

'Playboy image'

After his father's death, Nunn began drinking more heavily, friends said, and womanizing, posting an ad and semi-nude photo of himself on the sugardaddies.com Web site. He also wore his late father's clothes, friends said.

"Once his dad died, he wore (Gov. Nunn's) clothes out to eat," said Rep. Jamie Comer, R-Tompkinsville. "You could tell that they were a little out of style, which was odd because Steve always knew what was in style."

Louie left Steve more than $651,000 in cash, according to Louie Nunn's probated will in Woodford County. But by this summer, Nunn appeared to be strapped for cash as he took out a $20,000 line of credit on his $200,000 property in Glasgow, according to documents filed at the Barren County courthouse.

Democrats, meanwhile, sensed Nunn was politically vulnerable for the House seat he had held for eight terms with little opposition.

"We knew in 2005 that the courthouse crowd was definitely actively chattering about Steve's playboy image," said Jonathan Hurst, who was the House Democrats' caucus director during the 2006 election.

During that race against Democrat Johnny Bell, Nunn showed up at campaign events with alcohol on his breath and a much younger woman on his arm at times, said Robert M. "Buddy" Alexander, a Glasgow lawyer and friend of Louie Nunn's.

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