Merrill Werts | |
State Senate: | Kansas |
District: | 22nd |
Term Start: | 1979 |
Term End: | January 9, 1989 |
Predecessor: | Donn Everett |
Successor: | Lana Oleen |
Birth Date: | 1922 11, mf=yes[1] |
Birth Place: | Smith Center, Kansas[2] |
Residence: | Junction City, Kansas |
Death Place: | Junction City, Kansas |
Spouse: | Dorothy Wilson |
Children: | 4 |
Party: | Republican |
Alma Mater: | Kansas State University (undergraduate); Cornell University (Master's degree) |
Merrill H. Werts (November 17, 1922 - September 22, 2011) was an American politician who served in the Kansas Senate as a Republican from the 22nd district from 1979 to 1989.[1]
Werts was born in Smith Center, Kansas and raised on a farm. He attended Kansas State University, but his education there was interrupted by service in World War II; Werts entered the U.S. Army in June 1943 and fought in the European theater, losing a leg in Germany. He left the Army in March 1946 and returned to KSU, graduating in 1947. He received a master's degree in agricultural economics from Cornell University in 1948.
After completing his education, Werts worked in banking, eventually rising to become president of a bank in Junction City, Kansas. He was elected to the State Senate in 1978, taking office in 1979; in 1988, he declined to run for re-election, and Lana Oleen succeeded him in the Senate.[3]