William H. Avery died he was 98,

William Henry Avery died he was 98, Avery was an American Republican Party politician who served as the thirty-seventh Governor of Kansas from 1965 until 1967.

(August 11, 1911 – November 4, 2009)

Born in 1911 near Wakefield, Kansas, Avery graduated from the University of Kansas in 1934. While attending the KU he joined Delta Upsilon Fraternity. He was a member of the Wakefield School Board, and served in the Kansas House of Representatives from 1951 to 1955, and in the Congress for the Republican Party from 1955 to 1965.^[1]

Avery is remembered as the governor who sanctioned the executions of Perry Smith and Richard Hickock, the murderers of the Clutter family, made famous by the Truman Capote book In Cold Blood. Capote describes the governor as "a wealthy farmer" conscious of public opinion. Also as governor, he dedicated a memorial in Delphos, Kansas for Abraham Lincoln and Grace Bedell, the eleven year old girl who suggested to presidential candidate Lincoln to grow his famous beard.^[2]

After losing the governorship to Robert Docking in the 1966 election, Avery attempted but failed to win a seat in the Senate, losing in the primary to future U.S. presidential candidate Bob Dole. Following his retirement from politics, he worked for Clinton Oil Company and became president of Real Petroleum Company.

He was one of five former governors interviewed for the documentary The Kansas Governor, in which he proudly stated that in his many years of politics he had never played a round of golf. Avery was married to Hazel Bowles ^[3] (January 4, 1914 - August 17, 2004)^[4] from 1940 until her death. He died on November 4, 2009 at age 98. Flags in the state were ordered lowered until November 14 in his honor.^[5]

At the time of his death, he was the second oldest living governor of any state behind Albert Rosellini of Washington and was the oldest living former U.S. Representative following the September 25, 2008 death of Glenn Andrews of Alabama. Avery's death left former New York Representative William F. Walsh as the oldest living former House member.