Whitehead, Bryan K., 1925-2008.

Bryan Kendall Whitehead was born April 6, 1925, in Shawnee, Oklahoma, to Joseph Hugh Whitehead (1897-1948) and Mary Miller Whitehead (1906-1976). The family moved to Pratt, Kansas in 1936, and Whitehead graduated from Pratt High School in 1942. After graduation, he worked as a clerk for the Rock Island Railroad, and then attended Kansas State Teacher's College in Emporia, Kansas.

During World War II, Whitehead served as a musician in the Army Air Corps, also qualifying as a Marksman. After the war, he returned to work at the Rock Island Railroad, serving as a legislative representative of the Brotherhood of Railway, Airline and Steamship Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express and Station Employees at local, state, and national levels.

Upon his retirement in 1985, the Kansas House of Representatives passed a resolution commending Whitehead's contributions to the legislative process in the interests of those he represented.

After retiring, he and his wife, Mary Louis Hertlein Whitehead (married 1943) traveled with the Kansas City symphony and opera. Whitehead died at the age of 82 on April 4, 2008 in Olathe, Kansas.

From the guide to the Bryan K. Whitehead papers, 1940-1989, (University of Kansas Kenneth Spencer Research Library Kansas Collection)