Joan Finney

Who was Joan Finney?

Joan Finney, served as the 42nd Governor of Kansas from 1991 to 1995.

She was born Joan Marie McInroy in Topeka, Kansas, the daughter of Leonard and Mary Sands McInroy. She graduated from high school in Manhattan, Kansas in 1942. In 1957, she married Spencer Finney, Jr. and had three children, Sarah "Sally" Finney Timm, Richard Finney, and Mary Finney Holladay. In 1978, she graduated from Washburn University with a degree in economic history. From 1953 to 1969, she served on the staff of Republican U.S. Senator Frank Carlson. From 1970 to 1972, she served as Commissioner of Elections for Shawnee County, Kansas. In 1972, running as a Republican, she was an unsuccessful candidate for a U.S. House seat. After switching her political affiliation from Republican to Democrat, she served as the first female Kansas State Treasurer from 1975 to 1991. Her staff her first term as Treasurer included Nancy Claggett and Kathleen Boston Cole McCune as Deputies. After upsetting former Governor John W. Carlin in the 1990 Democratic primary for Governor, she defeated incumbent Republican Mike Hayden in the general election becoming the first woman to defeat an incumbent Governor in a general election in the United States.