Larry Winn

Edward Lawrence “Larry” Winn Jr. (August 22, 1919 – December 31, 2017) was an American politician and member of the U.S. House of Representatives representing Kansas’s 3rd district from 1967 to 1985. He was a member of the Republican Party.

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Winn participated in athletics at Southwest High School before losing one of his legs in a boating accident at Lake Lotawana when he was sixteen. He earned a B.A. in journalism from University of Kansas in 1941. After graduating, Winn worked for a Kansas City radio station for two years and, during World War II, worked for North American Aviation at Fairfax Field, north of Kansas City, Kansas, where the B-25 Mitchell bomber was manufactured.^[1] He then pursued a career in home building and was vice president of the Winn-Rau Corporation from 1950 until his election to Congress. Additionally, he was a director of the National Association of Home Builders for fourteen years and was president of the Home Builders Association of Kansas.^[2]

Winn was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican from the Wyandotte and Johnson Counties-based 3rd congressional district in 1966, succeeding three-term congressman Robert Ellsworth, and would be reelected eight more times until his retirement in 1984. During his tenure, he served on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and was a congressional representative to the United Nations.^[1] He was succeeded by fellow Republican Jan Meyers.

Winn met his wife, Joan Elliott, while attending college and the two would be married for seventy-three years until her death in 2015. Together, they had five children; the death of their son Robert in 1983 played a part in the senior Winn’s decision to retire from Congress. He lived in Prairie Village until his death on December 31, 2017 at age 98.^[1]

References

External links

• United States Congress. “Larry Winn (id: W000636)”. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.