| Kay A. Orr | |
| Order: | 36th Governor of Nebraska |
| Lieutenant: | William E. Nichol |
| Term Start: | January 9, 1987 |
| Term End: | January 9, 1991 |
| Predecessor: | Bob Kerrey |
| Successor: | Ben Nelson |
| Office1: | 36th Treasurer of Nebraska |
| Governor1: | Charles Thone Bob Kerrey |
| Term Start1: | June 15, 1981 |
| Term End1: | January 9, 1987 |
| Predecessor1: | Frank Marsh |
| Successor1: | Frank Marsh |
| Birth Name: | Kay Avonne Stark |
| Birth Date: | 2 January 1939 |
| Birth Place: | Burlington, Iowa, U.S. |
| Party: | Republican |
| Children: | 2 |
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 and to date only female governor.
Orr was born Kay Avonne Stark in Burlington, Iowa. Her mother, Sadie, was active in local politics, while her father, Ralph, was a Burlington city council member and farm implements dealer.[1] She attended the University of Iowa from 1956 to 1957.
In 1963, after moving to Lincoln, Nebraska, Orr began volunteering for the Republican Party. She supported such politicians as President Richard Nixon and Senators Carl Curtis and Roman Hruska, and was named Nebraska's Outstanding Young Republican Woman in 1969.[2] Orr was appointed as Nebraska State Treasurer following the midterm resignation of Frank Marsh 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.[3]
In the 1986 election, Orr secured the Republican nomination for Nebraska governor after winning an eight-way primary, carrying 81 of Nebraska's 93 counties including Douglas and Lancaster, Kermit Brashear carried 9 counties, and Nancy Hoch carried 2 counties.[4] [5]
In the 1986 general election, 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. Orr was the first Republican woman elected governor in the United States, and the second Republican woman governor after Vesta M. Roy, who served as the unelected acting governor of New Hampshire from December 1982 to January 1983.[6]
In the 1990 gubernatorial election, Orr was narrowly defeated by Democrat Ben Nelson. Nelson's two main attacks on her gubernatorial record were her support of a proposed low-level nuclear waste dump, and a tax increase which was passed over her veto.
As governor, Orr was against tax increases, against the Equal Rights Amendment, and opposes abortions in all cases.[7]
Orr co-chaired a coalition seeking to prohibit gay marriage in the state constitution via Initiative 416.[8] 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.
She married Bill Orr on September 26, 1957, and they had two children, John William and Suzanne. Bill died from complications of COPD on May 5, 2013.[9]
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