alfred mossman landon
governor of kansas
biography
Alfred Landon was born in West Middlesex, Pennsylvania on
September 9, 1887. A graduate of the University of Kansas, he
embarked upon a banking career, but four years after it he
found it distasteful and in 1912 became an independent
petroleum producer. During World War I he served as a first
lieutenant in the Chemical Warfare Service, United States
Army.
Landon’s interest in politics began early, as in 1912 he
supported Theodore Roosevelt’s Progressive Party and in 1922
he was appointed the private secretary to Governor Henry Allen
of Kansas. Subsequently he became known as the leader of the
liberal Republicans in Kansas.
Landon was elected chairman of the Republican State Central
Committee in 1928 and directed the Republican presidential and
gubernatorial campaigns in Kansas in that year. From 1933 to
1937 he served two terms as a governor of Kansas, gaining a
reputation for reducing taxes and balancing the budget.
At the Republican National Convention in 1936, Landon was
nominated for the presidency on the first ballot, with Frank
Knox of Illinois as his running mate. In the following
election, President Roosevelt won by a landslide, Landon only
carrying Maine and Vermont with a combined total of eight
electoral votes.
Subsequently, Landon was appointed the United States
delegate to the Pan-American Conference in Lima, Peru in 1938
and remained active in the petrolium industry and Republican
politics. His daughter Nancy Landon Kassebaum was elected U.S.
senator from Kansas in 1978 and reelected in 1984 and 1990.
