Tagged: Lura Lynn Ryan

National Guard responding to flooding in St. Joseph

Gov. Jay Nixon says Missouri faces several more weeks of potential flooding along the Missouri River as high water pushes its way south and eastward across the state.

Nixon met with officials from the Missouri National Guard outside St. Joseph for a briefing Monday on the guard's response to the flooding. He said the floods were made worse by heavy overnight storms that dumped up to 4 inches of rain in some sections, swelling the river past major flood stage near St. Joseph.

Updated 11:39 a.m. with information that George Ryan was at his wife's side when she died.

The wife of imprisoned former Illinois Gov. George Ryan has died.

An attorney for the governor, Andrea Lyon, confirmed that Lura Lynn Ryan died Monday at a Kankakee hospital. She was 76, and had been diagnosed last year with incurable lung cancer. She'd been hospitalized since Friday and had been on a respirator.

An attempt for former Ill. governor George Ryan to be released from prison on bail has failed, according to the Associated Press.

We've been following the story of Ryan's efforts to leave prison to spend time with his very ill wife, Lura Lynn.

After the announcement of his wife's deteriorating condition in early Dec. 2010,  Ryan made an urgent plea to be relased, which he was denied.