Payne Harry Ratner (3 October 1896-27 December 1974) was the Republican Governor of Kansas from 9 January 1939 to 11 January 1943, succeeding Walter A. Huxman and preceding Andrew Frank Schoeppel.
Biography[]
Payne Harry Ratner was born in Casey, Illinois in 1896, and he served in the US Navy during World War I before becoming a lawyer in Sibley, Iowa and then in Parsons, Kansas. He served as Labette County Attorney from 1923 to 1927, in the State Senate from 1937 to 1939, and as Governor from 1939 to 1943; during his tenure as Governor, he established a department of labor, organized a department of revenue and taxation, implemented a teacher's pension plan, and established a small permanent building fund for schools. He died in 1974.