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Indiana governor dies five days after strokeLieutenant governor sworn in; vows to serve 'with resolve'
CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Indiana Gov. Frank O'Bannon died Saturday, his spokesman said. The governor was 73. O'Bannon, who was in his seventh year as governor, died at 11:33 a.m. EDT in the neurointensive care unit of Northwestern Memorial Hospital, five days after suffering a massive stroke, according to a written statement from his office. Hours later, his lieutenant governor, Joe Kernan, was sworn in as governor of Indiana, pledging to carry out the remaining 16 months of O'Bannon's term "with resolve." On Wednesday, lawmakers had asked Indiana's Supreme Court to declare Kernan the state's acting governor after doctors said O'Bannon was incapable of functioning in that office. O'Bannon suffered the stroke Monday and has spent the week in critical condition and on life-support in Chicago, where he had been attending a conference. O'Bannon's condition worsened early Saturday, when swelling of his brain increased, the statement said. His vital signs became unstable, his blood pressure dropped and his heart rate slowed, the statement said. "Based on the governor's living will, First Lady Judy O'Bannon and the family decided to use no further means of support and care and the governor died naturally," the statement said. O'Bannon wished to donate his organs. In an informal ceremony on the tarmac of Indianapolis International Airport, O'Bannon's coffin -- draped in a U.S. flag -- was carried by law enforcement personnel into an awaiting hearse around 11 p.m. ET Saturday. A small group of family and friends -- including his widow, Judy -- watched the ceremony and comforted each other before departing. The White House released a statement from President Bush calling the late governor a "dedicated public servant and a good and decent man."
The president praised O'Bannon's "distinguished career." "Since being sworn in as governor of Indiana in 1997," Bush said, "he has served the people of his state with integrity and devotion. [First lady] Laura joins me in sending our thoughts and prayers to his wife, Judy, and their family." The two-term governor, a Democrat, served from 1989 to 1996 as lieutenant governor under Evan Bayh, now a U.S. senator. He had served the previous 18 years as a state senator from Corydon, representing all or part of eight southern Indiana counties, according to the biography on his Web site. During his early years as a lawyer, O'Bannon also worked at the newspaper his family owns, The Corydon Democrat, shooting photographs, covering general news, writing sports stories and folding the paper's sections for delivery. O'Bannon wrote the newspaper's editorial on John F. Kennedy's assassination. At about 9 a.m. Monday, an aide tried to reach O'Bannon by phone and then by knocking on the door of his room at the Palmer House Hilton Hotel in Chicago. When he got no answer, the aide summoned a hotel security guard, who opened the door and found O'Bannon on the floor of a closet -- unconscious but breathing, said Dr. Patrick Connor, who was working in the emergency room where paramedics brought O'Bannon a few minutes later. Within two hours, O'Bannon was in surgery, Connor said. O'Bannon recently underwent his annual physical, spokeswoman Mary Dieter said. "The doctor pronounced him not only with a clean bill of health, but said he wished he were as healthy." O'Bannon had been in Chicago since Sunday with Kernan to attend the Midwest U.S.-Japan Conference, said Andrew Stoner, the governor's deputy spokesman.
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