Shawnee County KS Archives Obituaries.....PORTER, William L.  November 21, 1957
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ks/ksfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Jim Laird jlaird@bellsouth.net May 15, 2005, 8:37 pm

The Topeka Daily Capital
Thursday
November 21, 1957

W.L. Porter Dies; Father of Senator.
The body of William L. PORTER, 73, one of Topeka's first park commissioners was
found Wednesday morning in a field two miles east and two miles north of Hoyt. A
searching party was organized when Porter went quail hunting and failed to return.
An autopsy revealed that he had suffered a heart attack while hunting. His son,
Sen. James W. Porter, was with a searching party of about 20 men when the body
was found. Sheriff Jerome BROWN was searching in the area from a plane. Five
quail were found in his hunting coat.
The body was found about a quarter mile from the farm house where Porter had
asked permission to hunt. The farmer gave the alarm when Porter's two hunting
dogs ame to the farm house without their master. The Jackson County sheriff's
office was notified but darkness interfered with the search.
Porter was born September 30, 1884, at Twin Mounds, Kan., and came to Topeka in
1908. He was elected park commissioner in 1913 and held that office until 1919.
During that period, the city board of health was started. He afterward ran for
mayor twice and won the nominations in the primaries.
He was field representative for the State Tuberculosis Association several years
and was president of the League of Kansas Municipalities from 1916 to 1918. He
was associated with the Winter Veterans Hospital at the time of his death.
Porter was park commissioner when the flu epidemic struck Topeka in 1918.
Hospitals were crowded and it became necessary to obtain other hospital
facilities to combat the epidemic. Porter, as head of the health department,
took over the old Reid Hotel, now the Norva Hotel at Fourth and Kansas Avenue,
and converted it into an emergency hospital.
Porter was a Republican in politics and took an active part, although he never
ran for a party office. He managed John Hamilton's campaign when he ran for
governor.
He was a former president of the Topeka Horticultural Society and an active
member of the Shawnee County Humane Society and the Sportsmen's Club.
Besides his son, he is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Patricia McCLAIN, Topeka, a
brother, Dr. Russell C. Porter, Tucson, Ariz., and five grandchildren. Funeral
services will be at 11 a.m. Friday at the Penwell-Gabel Funeral Home with burial
in Mount Hope Cemetery. 


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ks/shawnee/obits/p/porter53gob.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ksfiles/

File size: 2.9 Kb