Former Missouri First Lady Betty Cooper Hearnes dies

The former First Lady of Missouri, Betty Cooper Hearnes, died last Thursday.

She was the wife of Warren E. Hearnes, who served as Missouri’s 46th governor from 1965 to 1973.

Governor Hearnes, who has a building named in his honor at MSSU in Joplin, died in 2009.

Betty Hearnes also had a political career.

She was a state representative for 10 years and lost to John Ashcroft in a bid to become Missouri’s first female governor in 1988.

Betty Cooper Hearnes was 96 years old.