LaVerne H. Spears was born on a farm near Wamego, Kansas, on September 20, 1906. He married Edna Vilven in 1927. They moved to Rossville, Kansas, in 1928. He was mayor from 1955-1965. He was elected to the Kansas State Legislature in 1964 and served for 10 years. He died December 15, 1991. In this photograph, he is advertising his Farm Bureau business on a parade float in Rossville, Kansas. This photograph is provided through a pilot project to host unique cultural heritage materials from local libraries on Kansas Memory and was accomplished by mutual agreement between the Northeast Kansas Library System, the Rossville Community Library, and the Kansas Historical Society.