a North Carolina furniture company, but in turn folded in less than a year after he joined it. It was during his period of unemployment that he began to become involved in politics. He formed the Young Republicans of LaPorte County in 1935 and in 1936 he made an unsuccessful run for the Indiana Senate. He remained active in the party and ran for the senate again in 1940 and was elected along with a strong Republican majority to both houses of the body. In the first session of the Indiana General Assembly of his term, he supported the Republican position of repealing almost a decade of Democratic legislation and reorganizing the executive branch of the government to decentralize control away from the governor. World War II After the United States entered World War II in 1941, Handley resigned from the senate and enlisted in the army as a lieutenant, but eventually rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was assigned to the Eighty-eighth Infantry Division headquartered in Mojave desert. Despite making multiple requests to be sent overseas, the army kept him in the United States for the duration of the war to serve as a trainer for new recruits. As fresh soldiers arrived in the camp he was responsible for overseeing the drill sergeants and ensuring they were properly trained before they were dispatched to serve as reinforcements to the main body of the division. During his time in the army, he met Barbara Jean Winterble, a psychiatric nurse working at a Red Cross post near his base. The two were married on February 17, 1944, and they moved back to LaPorte after Handley was discharged from the army in 1946. He took a new job in furniture sales and a second job in sales a small movie production company. He soon had two children, Kenneth and Martha Jean. Legislator Handley returned to politics in 1948 after winning election to his former senate seat. It was still a period of Republican domination in the state, and he quickly rekindled his friendship with then-United States Senator William E. Jenner. In the 1952 state convention, George N. Craig, a dark horse candidate, won the nomination to the consternation of the party leadership. Jenner and others had hoped to have a more conservative nominee for governor. They successfully maneuvered Handley as their candidate to win the nomination to run for lieutenant