The 41-Day Governor
Frank Leslie Hagaman’s 41-day term as Governor is one of the more curious episodes in the state’s history. Although now largely forgotten, events leading the Hagaman “administration” caused some at the time to proclaim that back-room deal making robbed Hagaman of his political due.
Hagaman, a Johnson County attorney and active Republican, had served in the state legislature for a number of years and in 1950 was serving his second elected term as the Lieutenant Governor of Kansas. Frank Carlson, a Concordia Republican, was serving his second term as governor. When Kansas Senator Clyde Reed died in 1949, Carlson appointed Kansas City businessman Harry Darby to serve out the term. In 1950, Carlson campaigned for U.S. Senate and won. Darby then resigned his seat to allow Carlson to gain seniority in the Senate. Carlson, whose gubernatorial term was to end in January, 1951, resigned the governor’s office in late November, 1950. Lieutenant Governor Hagaman was sworn in to fill out the governor’s term. Hagaman served 41 days. Since the legislature was not in session during that time, his main duty was to shepherd the new state budget to completion before the next chief executive took office.
This story is odd enough, but even odder circumstances cast their shadow on Hagaman’s peculiar position. Newspaper stories of the time indicate that Hagaman felt that he had paid his political dues and should be the Republican nominee for governor in 1950. An editorial in the Leavenworth Times (7/24/50) intimated that the Harry Darby camp, in league with The Kansas City Star, ordered Hagaman not to declare his candidacy, as it would fragment the Republican Party. The Darby camp backed Edward Arn, a lawyer from Wichita.
Whatever “orders” may have been issued, in January Hagaman took his opportunity during Kansas Day, an annual Republican gathering in Topeka, to step up and announce his candidacy for governor. An uproar ensued, followed by a rough-and-tumble campaign that ended with Hagaman’s defeat in the fall Republican primary. The day after Hagaman’s swearing-in as interim governor, a Topeka newspaper columnist remarked, “They will hang ex-Governor Hagaman’s picture in January, although some people still think he was framed last Kansas Day.”
--ALBUM vol. 17, no. 4 (fall 2004)