FRANKLIN EARL LUCAS was born in Grant City, Missouri. After completing an eighth-grade education, he apprenticed in the printing trade in Des Moines, Iowa. Moving to Wyoming in 1899, he pursued a newspaper career with the Buffalo Bulletin that lasted 46 years, during much of which he was owner and publisher. His work with the Bulletin —which became a leading Republican newspaper in northern Wyoming—led to his involvement in politics. He served in both the Wyoming House and Senate, and ran a successful campaign for Secretary of State in 1922. Because the state had no lieutenant governor, he became acting governor upon the death of William B. Ross in late 1924, serving until Ross’ widow, governor-elect Nellie Tayloe Ross, was sworn into office in January, 1925. Lucas then returned to his duties as Secretary of State, and later ran unsuccessfully for gubernatorial nominations in the 1926 and 1934 Republican primaries. Returning to the Buffalo Bulletin , he continued to serve as editor and publisher until he sold the newspaper in 1946.