William Brown Stansbury (March 18, 1923 – April 4, 1985) was an American lawyer and politician who held the office of the Mayor of Louisville, Kentucky from 1977 to 1982.

[4] In 1965, he challenged Jefferson County Judge Marlow Cook for the job, and at one point, appeared at a campaign event with Ted Kennedy.

Among the accomplishments of his tenure was bringing the Louisville Redbirds, a minor league baseball team, to the city.

[1] He also focused heavily on downtown development, including the beginning of construction on the Kentucky Center for the Arts and redeveloping a portion of the River City Mall to become the Louisville Galleria.

[14] Not helping matters, Stansbury also appeared before a federal grand jury to testify about alleged campaign finance violations.

[1] But the Louisville Board of Aldermen was increasingly filled with younger and more liberal Democratic politicians, elected post-Watergate.

1979 saw Stansbury accused by gubernatorial candidate Carroll Hubbard for coercing city employees to back Terry McBrayer for Governor.

[17] In September, the Louisville Board of Aldermen voted 10–2 in favor of a resolution calling for the mayor to resign.

[19] The process was eventually thwarted by court rulings denying investigators access to Stansbury's records and the ability to subpoena witnesses.

[24] That same year, however, he was appointed by Governor Martha Layne Collins as a hearing officer for the state's Worker's Compensation board.