Payne Ratner (1939-1943)

Ratner Payne

Politician, Governor

Born: 13 October 1896, Casey, Illinois.
Died:27 December 1974, Wichita, Kansas.

Inaugural Address, 1939
Governor's Message, 1939
Special Session Message, 1939
Inaugural Address, 1941
Governor's Message, 1941
Special Session Message, 1941

Born in Casey, Illinois, on October 13, 1896, Payne Ratner moved to Parsons in 1920. A Republican lawyer who held several elective offices prior to his elevation to the state's highest in 1939, Governor Ratner oversaw the state's transition to a wartime economy. On December 27, 1974, soon after his 78th birthday, the two-term Kansas governor died in Wichita.

Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.