The Political Graveyard: Lutheran Politicians in Missouri

PoliticalGraveyard.com

Lutheran Politicians in Missouri

Conrad Ray Burns (1935-2016) — also known as Conrad R. Burns — of Billings, Yellowstone County, Mont. Born in Gallatin, Daviess County, Mo., January 25, 1935. Republican. Auctioneer; broadcaster; U.S. Senator from Montana, 1989-2007; delegate to Republican National Convention from Montana, 2008. Lutheran. Member, Freemasons. Died April 28, 2016 (age 81 years, 94 days). Burial location unknown.

Eugene R. Cater (b. 1923) — of Ludington, Mason County, Mich. Born in St. Joseph, Buchanan County, Mo., December 8, 1923. Democrat. Served in the U.S. Army during World War II; member of Michigan state house of representatives 98th District, 1965-66; defeated, 1966, 1968. Lutheran. Danish ancestry. Member, Elks; Eagles; Freemasons; American Legion; Disabled American Veterans. Presumed deceased. Burial location unknown.

Relatives: Married 1948 to Donna Mae Fenner.

Martin P. Degenhardt (b. 1918) — of Perryville, Perry County, Mo. Born in Wittenberg, Perry County, Mo., January 22, 1918. Republican. Served in the U.S. Army during World War II; furniture business; accountant; tree farmer; member of Missouri state house of representatives from Perry County, 1952-67. Lutheran. Member, American Legion; Optimist Club. Presumed deceased. Burial location unknown.

Relatives: Married, November 23, 1946, to Eleanor Nolle.

Henry William Kamp (1851-1918) — also known as H. W. Kamp — of Bellflower, Montgomery County, Mo. Born in St. Louis, Mo., April 19, 1851. Farmer; banker; member of Missouri state house of representatives from Montgomery County, 1915-16. Lutheran; later Presbyterian. Died April 24, 1918 (age 67 years, 5 days). Interment at Bellflower Cemetery, Bellflower, Mo.

		Relatives: Married, February 22, 1877, to Caroline Schowengerdt.
		See also Find-A-Grave memorial

Henry W. Kiel (1871-1942) — also known as "Father of the Municipal Opera" — of St. Louis, Mo. Born in St. Louis, Mo., February 21, 1871. Republican. Bricklayer; brick contractor; candidate for Presidential Elector for Missouri; delegate to Republican National Convention from Missouri, 1912; mayor of St. Louis, Mo., 1913-25; Missouri Republican state chair, 1926-28; candidate for U.S. Senator from Missouri, 1932. Lutheran. Member, Freemasons; Odd Fellows; Knights of Pythias; Moose; Royal Arcanum. Died, from complications of a stroke, in St. Louis, Mo., November 26, 1942 (age 71 years, 278 days). Entombed in mausoleum at Oak Grove Cemetery, Bel-Nor, Mo.

		Relatives: Son of Henry F. Kiel and Minnie C. (Daues) Kiel; married, September 1, 1892, to Irene H. Moonan.
		Kiel Auditorium (built 1934 as Municipal Auditorium; name changed 1943; demolished 1992), in St. Louis, Missouri, was named for him.
		See also Find-A-Grave memorial

Milton Fred Napier (1900-1972) — also known as Milton F. Napier — of St. Louis, Mo. Born in St. Louis, Mo., September 3, 1900. Republican. Lawyer; accountant; criminal court judge in Missouri, 1930; member of Missouri state house of representatives from St. Louis City 1st District, 1943-44; defeated, 1944; member of Missouri state senate 2nd District, 1947-50; defeated, 1950 (2nd District), 1956 (1st District), 1960 (1st District), 1964 (1st District). Lutheran. Member, American Legion; Forty and Eight. Died, from cancer, in Lutheran Medical Center, St. Louis, Mo., October 11, 1972 (age 72 years, 38 days). Interment at Concordia Cemetery, St. Louis, Mo.

		Relatives: Son of Charles John Napier and Emilie A. (Juengel) Napier.
		See also Find-A-Grave memorial

Gordon S. Summers (b. 1926) — of Bourbon, Crawford County, Mo. Born in Sullivan, Franklin County, Mo., April 29, 1926. Democrat. Served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II; school teacher; clothing merchant; insurance business; member of Missouri state house of representatives from Crawford County, 1955-56; defeated, 1956. Lutheran. Member, American Legion; Lions; Sigma Nu. Still living as of 1956.

Relatives: Married, November 11, 1948, to Virginia Merkel.

Lester A. Vonderschmidt (b. 1903) — of Craig, Holt County, Mo.; Mound City, Holt County, Mo. Born near Craig, Holt County, Mo., June 12, 1903. Republican. Lawyer; member of Missouri state house of representatives from Holt County, 1935-38, 1947-54; chair of Holt County Republican Party, 1945-46. Lutheran. Burial location unknown.

Relatives: Married, November 17, 1927, to Margaret McKee.

"Enjoy the hospitable entertainment of a political graveyard."
Henry L. Clinton, Apollo Hall, New York City, February 3, 1872

The Political Graveyard is a web site about U.S. political history and cemeteries. Founded in 1996, it is the Internet's most comprehensive free source for American political biography, listing 320,919 politicians, living and dead.

	The coverage of this site includes (1) the President, Vice President, members of Congress, elected state and territorial officeholders in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories; and the chief elected official, typically the mayor, of qualifying municipalities; (2) candidates at election, including primaries, for any of the above; (3) all federal judges and all state appellate judges; (4) certain federal officials, including the federal cabinet, diplomatic chiefs of mission, consuls, U.S. district attorneys, collectors of customs and internal revenue, members of major federal commissions; and political appointee (pre-1969) postmasters of qualifying communities; (5) state and national political party officials, including delegates, alternate delegates, and other participants in national party nominating conventions; (6) Americans who served as "honorary" consuls for other nations before 1950. Note: municipalities or communities "qualify", for Political Graveyard purposes, if they have at least half a million person-years of history, inclusive of predecessor, successor, and merged entities.
	The listings are incomplete; development of the database is a continually ongoing project.
	Information on this page — and on all other pages of this site — is believed to be accurate, but is not guaranteed. Users are advised to check with other sources before relying on any information here.
	The official URL for this page is: https://politicalgraveyard.com/geo/MO/lutheran.html.
	Links to this or any other Political Graveyard page are welcome, but specific page addresses may sometimes change as the site develops.
	If you are searching for a specific named individual, try the alphabetical index of politicians.
Copyright notices: (1) Facts are not subject to copyright; see Feist v. Rural Telephone. (2) Politician portraits displayed on this site are 70-pixel-wide monochrome thumbnail images, which I believe to constitute fair use under applicable copyright law. Where possible, each image is linked to its online source. However, requests from owners of copyrighted images to delete them from this site are honored. (3) Original material, programming, selection and arrangement are © 1996-2023 Lawrence Kestenbaum. (4) This work is also licensed for free non-commercial re-use, with attribution, under a Creative Commons License.
Site information: The Political Graveyard is created and maintained by Lawrence Kestenbaum, who is solely responsible for its structure and content. — The mailing address is The Political Graveyard, P.O. Box 2563, Ann Arbor MI 48106. — This site is hosted by HDL. — The Political Graveyard opened on July 1, 1996; the last full revision was done on March 8, 2023.