Ernest Kline
American politician
Ernest P. "Ernie" Kline (June 20, 1929 – May 13, 2009) was a Democratic member of the Pennsylvania State Senate and the 25th lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, serving from 1971 to 1979.
Early life, career
Kline was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania and grew up in the Webster neighborhood of Rostraver Township, Pennsylvania. He attended Rostraver High School, where he was the starting quarterback and graduated in 1947. He attended Duquesne University, but was unable to afford completing his degree. He took a career in radio news broadcasting in Charleroi, Connellsville, Kittanning, and at WBVP-AM in Beaver Falls. He entered politics after covering city council; he was elected to the Beaver Falls City Council in 1955. In 1961, he was appointed to be a workers' compensation referee for Beaver, Washington, and Greene Counties.
Politics
He was elected to the Pennsylvania State Senate in 1964, taking office in 1965. In August 1967, he was elected Democratic Floor Leader, becoming the youngest person to hold that position.
He was elected Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania on the Milton Shapp gubernatorial ticket in November 1970.
The public source identifies “Ernest Kline” as american politician. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Ernest, Kline and American.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5393396. VIAF identifies the subject as 1620655. The Library of Congress control number is n89649133. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1929, 2009, 1971 and 1979.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ernest Kline” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.