Dole honored in Kansas as tough but compassionate statesman

By JOHN HANNA
Associated Press

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Fellow Kansans have celebrated Bob Dole as a tough but compassionate patriot shaped by small-town values. They also remembered him during memorial services Saturday as a strong partisan leader who could nevertheless work with political opponents and ultimately became in Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s words, “the greatest of the Greatest Generation.” Dole was celebrated in his western Kansas hometown of Russell and at the Statehouse in Topeka. Dole died Sunday at the age of 98 after serving nearly 36 years in Congress and running as the GOP nominee for president in 1996. He also was honored for the military service during World War II that left him severely wounded.