INDIANAPOLIS โ Former Indiana Gov. Joe Kernan, a Vietnam prisoner of war who entered politics and was thrust into the stateโs top office when his predecessor suffered a deadly stroke, died Wednesday at age 74.
Kernan died at a South Bend health care facility, said Mary Downes, who was his governor's office chief of staff. Kernan was diagnosed with Alzheimerโs disease several years ago, but his family kept his condition private until disclosing earlier this month that he had lost the ability to speak and was living in a care facility.
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Kernan, a Democrat, won three elections as South Bendโs mayor before being elected lieutenant governor with Gov. Frank OโBannon in 1996 and 2000. Kernan became governor in September 2003 after OโBannonโs death and served for 16 months before he lost the 2004 election to Republican Mitch Daniels.
โJoe Kernan was a steady hand of leadership at a difficult time for our state," Vice President Mike Pence, a former Indiana governor, said in a statement. โEven though our politics differed, Joe Kernan was always kind, always willing to work together for Hoosiers, and Joe Kernan was my friend."
A gregarious campaigner who was a catcher on the University of Notre Dameโs baseball team, Kernan was widely praised for the smooth transition after the first death of an Indiana governor since 1891.
โThis was uncharted territory,โ Republican state Sen. James Merritt said to Kernan during a ceremony just days before he left office in early 2005. โThis was your legacy โ calm leadership in a crisis.โ
Current Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, a Republican, said of Kernan: โDistinguished isnโt a strong enough word to describe him."
โWithout regard for personal cost, Joe Kernan devoted every ounce of his life, time and again, to upholding the oath he took, and serving the country and state he loved," Holcomb said in a statement.
Kernan enlisted in the Navy following his 1968 Notre Dame graduation and he flew as a navigator on combat missions over Laos and North Vietnam. His reconnaissance plane was shot down during a mission over North Vietnam on May 7, 1972. He ejected and was captured, beginning an 11-month ordeal as a prisoner of war that ended when he was flown out of Hanoi on March 27, 1973.
The worst day of captivity came early on, he said, when he talked with another POW.
โHe told me that our escort had lost us and that we were presumed dead,โ Kernan said in a 2002 interview. โMy family thought I was dead, and if the Navy thought I was dead, the thing that goes through your mind is that thereโs no reason for these guys to keep me alive.โ
For decades, Kernan marked every May 7 by playing golf, eating a pizza and drinking some beer. He said he remembered the date of his capture each year โwithout question,โ but sometimes he didnโt remember the anniversary of his release until a day or a week later.
โI think itโs because if there hadnโt have been a May 7th, there never would have been a March 27th,โ Kernan said. โIt was the day my life changed.โ
Kernanโs actions as governor included picking former state budget director Kathy Davis to replace him as lieutenant governor โ making her the first woman to serve either as Indianaโs governor or lieutenant governor.
He also became the first Indiana governor in 48 years to spare the life of a death row inmate when he stopped an execution just days before it was scheduled to occur in 2004. Kernan said he decided it would be unfair to execute Darnell Williams for the 1986 murders of a Gary couple when a mentally disabled accomplice got a life sentence. Williamsโ sentence was commuted to life in prison without parole.
Kernan had decided against a 2004 run for governor the year before OโBannonโs death. He changed his mind two months after taking over the stateโs top office, declaring โI donโt want to watch this from the sidelines.โ
Republicans attacked Kernan over the state governmentโs budget deficit and tens of thousands of job losses, with Democrats blaming the problems on the 2001 national recession following the dot-com bust. Kernan lost what was then Indianaโs most-expensive gubernatorial campaign to Daniels, who had been President George W. Bushโs federal budget director and is now Purdue Universityโs president.
Kernan grew up in the northern Indiana city of South Bend as the oldest of nine siblings. After his return from Vietnam, he married his wife, Maggie, and worked for local businesses before becoming city controller and then winning his first of three mayoral elections in 1987. The couple had no children.
No public funeral services will be held at this time because of the coronavirus pandemic, Downes said.
After leaving the governor's office, Kernan led a group of investors who owned South Bendโs minor league baseball team for about five years before selling it in 2011. Kernanโs group stopped the team from being moved away from the city, but he said the franchise never turned a profit.
โI was not as happy about the baseball thing but to him it was like a gift for South Bend,โ Maggie Kernan told Notre Dame Magazine earlier this year.
Kernan often said he didnโt have many bad days after his time as a POW. Maggie Kernan said she often saw that perspective.
โBecause of his personality and optimistic outlook, he has been able to take it and make something out of it that is positive,โ she said. โHe will talk about doing something tough and difficult and say, โWhat are they going to do, send me to jail? Iโve already been there.โโ