Editing Ron Lewis (section)

==Early life, education, and career==
Lewis was born in McKell near [[South Shore, Kentucky|South Shore]] in [[Greenup County, Kentucky|Greenup County]] in far northeastern Kentucky. He graduated in 1964 from McKell High School. He attended [[Morehead State University]] in [[Morehead, Kentucky|Morehead]] in [[Rowan County, Kentucky|Rowan County]] from 1964 to 1967 and graduated from the [[University of Kentucky]] at [[Lexington, Kentucky|Lexington]] in 1969 with a [[Bachelor of Arts]] degree in [[history]] and [[political science]]. Lewis returned to Morehead in 1980 to earn a [[master's degree]] in professional [[education]] in 1981.

At twenty-one, Lewis worked in the 1967 gubernatorial campaign of [[Louie B. Nunn]] of [[Glasgow, Kentucky|Glasgow]]. Nunn's victory got Lewis a state job for a time and encouragement to run in 1971 for the [[Kentucky House of Representatives]] in his native Greenup County. Though he lost the legislative race in a [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] year in Kentucky, Lewis maintained an interest in [[Republican Party (United States)|GOP]] politics. In 1972, Lewis served briefly in the [[U.S. Navy]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.war-veterans.org/Vetlegis1.htm |title=Vets Legislation Wash.D.C. |accessdate=2006-08-16 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060221132417/http://www.war-veterans.org/Vetlegis1.htm |archivedate=2006-02-21 }}</ref> attending the Navy [[Officer Candidate School]] in [[Pensacola, Florida]]; a [[kidney]] ailment resulted in a quick medical discharge.

Lewis worked in sales for several companies, including [[Ashland Oil]], before teaching for five years at [[Watterson College]] in [[Louisville, Kentucky|Louisville]], Kentucky, having begun in 1980. (The school closed in the 1990s.) He also was ordained as a [[Southern Baptist]] minister in 1980, having served as pastor for the historic White Mills Baptist Church, after attending the [[Southern Baptist Theological Seminary]] in Louisville. In 1985 Lewis opened a religious bookstore, Alpha and Omega Bookstore, in [[Elizabethtown, Kentucky|Elizabethtown]]. In the early 1980s, he was a pastor at Friendship Baptist Church, located outside [[Hodgenville, Kentucky|Hodgenville]].

Lewis has been married to Kayi Gambill Lewis since 1966. They live in [[Cecilia, Kentucky|Cecilia]],<ref>[https://archive.org/details/almanacofamerica00/page/678/mode/2up The Almanac of American Politics, 2000 pg. 678]</ref> near Elizabethtown, and have two children. He is a [[Southern Baptist]].