Esteemed AP Kansas political reporter Lew Ferguson dies

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published 8 years ago

TOPEKA, Kan. — Lew Ferguson (pictured, right), who mentored dozens of other journalists during a long career with The Associated Press that included nearly three decades covering Kansas politics, has died. He was 83.

Ferguson's 42-year career included coverage of professional baseball and football as a sports writer before he became AP's supervisory correspondent in Topeka in 1970, a job he held until his retirement in 1999. He helped cover the World Series three times and the Super Bowl in 1970 and he reported on nine national political conventions.

His daughter said he died Thursday night at an Oklahoma City hospital. No cause of death was given, but he had two heart attacks earlier this year.

He became a confidante of former Kansas Gov. Alf Landon, the 1936 Republican nominee for president and the father of former Kansas Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker. He also became a friend of Dr. Karl Menninger, the internationally known psychiatrist. He had lunch regularly with both.

"He knew the people, senators, governors, and managers, and he was more than a partner — for an outsider he was a teacher," said Walter Mears, a former AP vice president, Washington bureau chief, and national political writer. "Lew was encyclopedic." - AP/Photo: Scott Weaver, AP