Orr, Kay A. (Kay Avonne), 1939-
Variant namesBiographical notes:
Kay Avonne Orr (née Stark, January 2, 1939) is an American politician who served as the 36th Governor of Nebraska from 1987 to 1991. A member of the Republican Party, she was the state's first female governor.
Orr was born Kay Avonne Stark in Burlington, Iowa. She attended the University of Iowa from 1956 to 1957. Moving to Lincoln, Nebraska in 1963, Orr began volunteering for the Nebraska Republican Party shortly thereafter. She was named Nebraska's Outstanding Young Republican Woman in 1969. Orr was appointed to fill a midterm vacancy in the office of State Treasurer of Nebraska in 1981. She was subsequently elected to that post in 1982, becoming the first woman ever to be elected to a statewide constitutional office in Nebraska. She held that office until 1987.
In the 1986 election, Orr secured the Republican nomination for Nebraska governor after winning an eight-way primary. She defeated former Lincoln Mayor Helen Boosalis in the first U.S. gubernatorial election in which both major party candidates were women, winning by a 53% to 47% margin. She would narrowly lose her reelection bid to Democrat Ben Nelson.
Orr co-chaired a coalition seeking to prohibit gay marriage in the state constitution via Initiative 416. Her effort was successful, and gay marriage was banned in 2000. In 2015, the Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court ruling rendered the ban unenforceable. Orr served twice as a presidential elector for the state of Nebraska, casting one of the state's five electoral votes. In the 2004 presidential election, she voted for George W. Bush, and in the 2012 election, for Mitt Romney.
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Subjects:
- Advertising, political
- Television advertising
Occupations:
- Governors
- State Government Official
Places:
- IA, US
- NE, US
- IA, US
