TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Spencer W. Finney Jr., husband of the late Gov. Joan Finney and the state’s first “first gentleman,” died Thursday, his daughter said. He was 89.
Mary Holladay, of Topeka, said her father died of natural causes at his home in Topeka. He had served as Kansas’ first gentleman from 1991 to 1995, when his wife served a single term as the state’s governor - the first woman to hold that office.
Spencer Finney was born on Jan. 20, 1931, in Chanute, Kansas. He graduated from Topeka High School in 1949 and went on to work for the Santa Fe railway for 30 years. He married the then-Joan McInroy in 1957, and they remained married until her death in 2001.
He is survived by his three children, including Holladay, Sarah Timm, of Homosassa, Florida, and Richard Finney, of Topeka; six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
A private funeral service is planned for a later date, Holladay said.
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