soil in a time of war, on April 27, 1805, during the Tripoli Campaign in the First Barbary War. He attended Indiana University, where he played one season of basketball for the Hoosiers. At IU, he was president of the Zeta Chapter of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. He earned a B.A. in government in 1952, and a J.D. in 1957 from the Indiana University School of Law – Bloomington. He also spent two years in the United States Air Force. While at IU, he met his wife, Judith Asmus, on a blind date and they married in 1957. Following law school, he opened a law office in Corydon, was chairman of the board of the family newspaper publishing firm (a position he held until the time of his death), and was a member of the board of the Corydon Savings and Loan. Political career Indiana Senate First elected to the state senate in 1969-70 to a seat occupied by his father, Robert P. O'Bannon, from 1950 to 1970, Frank O'Bannon was the primary sponsor of legislation reintroducing the death penalty. He rose to the rank of Senate Minority Leader among Democrats during his tenure in the legislative body. He served one two-year stint as chair of the Senate Finance Committee following a short-lived Democratic majority. Lieutenant Governor of Indiana O'Bannon launched his first campaign for governor in May 1987 from Corydon, Indiana and initially faced off against then-Secretary of State Evan Bayh and Kokomo Mayor Steve Daily. O'Bannon abandoned his own bid for governor in January 1988 and joined forces with Bayh and won election as the 46th Lieutenant Governor of Indiana in November 1988. His candidacy for lieutenant governor matched that of his grandfather, Lew M. O'Bannon, who was the 1924 Democratic nominee for the state's second-highest office. As lieutenant governor, he presided as President of the State Senate, served as the state's Director of Commerce and Commissioner of Agriculture. Governor of Indiana In 1996, with Evan Bayh ineligible to seek a third consecutive term as governor due to term limits, O'Bannon became the Democratic nominee for governor. He overcame an early deficit in the polls against his Republican opponent, Indianapolis mayor Stephen Goldsmith and won in a close race, 52% to 47%. He was re-elected by a larger margin, 57% to 42%, in 2000 against second district Congressman David M. McIntosh. During the boom years of the