diff --git a/pandas/io/sas/sasreader.py b/pandas/io/sas/sasreader.py
index 291c9d1ee7f0c..d6f083385c7e0 100644
--- a/pandas/io/sas/sasreader.py
+++ b/pandas/io/sas/sasreader.py
@@ -128,6 +128,7 @@ def read_sas(
     if iterator or chunksize:
         return reader
 
-    data = reader.read()
-    reader.close()
-    return data
+    try:
+        return reader.read()
+    finally:
+        reader.close()