Lakin ? Monte E. Canfield Sr., for 56 years the publisher of the Lakin Independent, has died. He was 86.

Canfield died Saturday at the retirement home in Lakin that he had moved into on Thursday, said Kathy McVey, the Independent’s managing editor.

“He was a true newspaper man and printer,” McVey said. “It was his life.”

Canfield and his wife, Gloria, moved to Lakin in 1947, and he became the owner, publisher and editor of the Lakin Independent. He was former mayor of Lakin, as well as past county chairman of the Republican Party.

His funeral will be at 10:30 a.m. Thursday at the United Methodist Church in Lakin, with burial at Lakin Cemetery.