Reed, Clyde Martin, 1871-1949

Clyde Martin Reed was born 9 October 1871 in Champaign County, Illinois, the son of Martin Van Buren and Mary Adelaid Reed. His family moved to Labette County, Kansas in 1875, where Reed received his education, including a teacher's certificate. In 1891 he married Minnie E. Hart and they had seven children who survived to adulthood. Reed worked for the government much of his life, when not running the Parsons Sun newspaper. He worked in the post office for many years, was secretary to Governor Henry Allen in 1919 and then held appointments to the Kansas Industrial Court and the Public Utilities Commission in the early 1920s. He unsuccessfully ran for the Republican Party candidacy for Kansas governor in 1924. In 1928 he was successful on the Republican ticket but only served for one term due to economic and social pressures caused by the onset of the Great Depression. However, in 1938 Reed was elected a United States senator from Kansas and held that position until his death. He died 8 November, 1949 in Parsons, Kansas. Clyde M. Reed, Jr. followed in his father's footsteps. He received a political science degree from the University of Kansas in 1937 and published and edited the Parsons Sun for most of his life and held various civic and political positions. He was president of the Kansas Press Association and of the William Allen White Foundation, served on the Kansas Board of Regents and was a member of the State Constitutional Revision Commission of the 1950s. He unsuccessfully ran for Kansas governor in 1958.