Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson's adventurous 90 minutes as governor

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — It began with a note to Utah Supreme Court Chief Justice Matthew Durrant, and went into full swing with a press release.

April 21, 2023, was the day Deidre Henderson became the governor of Utah – for just under a couple of hours, that is.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox transferred the "duties and powers of the governor" to Lt. Gov. Henderson briefly Friday morning while he underwent a routine medical procedure, which is –according to Utah law – initiated with a letter to the state's highest court.

Her term began at 7:28 a.m. and lasted approximately as long as Disney's 1994 animated film, "The Lion King."

A half hour into her governorship, she tweeted an update about the experience, saying it wasn't that different from being Lt. Governor.

Henderson's staff, in the meantime, wasted no time getting to work.

The first order of business was to update her official placard in Utah's state house.

With Henderson's nameplate taken care of, the acting governor's staff began the process of adding her likeness to the building's hallowed halls.

The team found a near-perfect place in the building for Henderson's image to hang.

But with the limited amount of time they had, staffers were working with resources available at that moment. The acting governor's portrait's size was out of proportion, and the frame was a far cry from being aesthetically in-step with the portrait of the Beehive State's first female lieutenant governor, Olene Walker, who followed her historic term by making history again as Utah's first female governor in 2003.

I lieu of a place next to Utah's two-time glass ceiling breaker, staffers eventually found what might have been prime real estate for Henderson's portrait: in the hall outside the Governor's Office.

There happened to be a portrait already hanging in the spot, but the staff appeared ready and willing to switch out one for the other.

However, amid the interior redecorating, Cox's procedure was officially completed without any complications.

At 9 a.m., the governor was back in charge as the state's official governor, according to a media statement.

For Henderson, as she stated in a tweet as her eventful tenure came to an end, "It was fun while it lasted."