Landon, Alfred M. (1887–1987)

ALFRED M. LANDON was the Republican presidential nominee of 1936, and he served two terms as the [Page 737]governor of Kansas. Alfred Mossman Landon was born in his grandfather's parsonage in West Middlesex, Pennsylvania, the son of John M. and Anne (Mossman) Landon. His father was an oil prospector, and the family lived in Pennsylvania and Ohio. He graduated from Marietta Academy in Marietta, Ohio, in 1904. He went on to the University of Kansas, where his father was, by that time, working oil fields there. He quickly became a leader in student organizations, and as a result of his adeptness at campus politics, he was nicknamed “The Fox.” Landon received a law degree from the university in 1908, but he never practiced law. He ...