Post by account_disabled on Feb 17, 2024 6:50:17 GMT -5
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Former U.S. Sen. Jean Carnahan, who became the first senator to represent Missouri after being appointed to replace her husband following his death, died Tuesday. She was 90 years old. Carnahan, a Democrat, was appointed to the Senate in 2001 after the posthumous election of her husband, Governor Mel Carnahan, and served until 2002. “Mom passed away peacefully after a long and rich life. She was a fearless pioneer. “She was brilliant, creative, compassionate and dedicated to her family and her fellow Missourians,” her family said in a statement. His family did not specify the cause of death, but said Carnahan died after a brief illness at a hospice facility in suburban St. Louis. Carnahan was born on December 20, 1933 in Washington, DC and grew up in the nation's capital. His father worked as a plumber and his mother as a hairdresser. She met Mel Carnahan, the son of a Missouri congressman, at a church event, and they became better acquainted after sitting next to each other in a high school class, according to information provided by the family. They married on June 12, 1954.
Jean Carnahan graduated a year later from George Washington University with a bachelor's degree in business and public administration, and they later raised four children on a farm near Rolla, Missouri. She served as first lady of Missouri after her husband's election as governor in 1992 and during his two terms. On October 16, 2000, the governor, the couple's son, Roger, and an aide died in a plane crash. After Mel Carnahan was posthumously elected three weeks later, acting Governor Roger Wilson appointed Jean Carnahan to fill the seat left vacant by the America Mobile Number List death of her husband. He served from January 3, 2001 to November 25, 2002. Following his appointment, Carnahan gave a speech on the Senate floor highlighting his tragic path to the chamber. “My name has never been on a ballot. On election night there was no victory celebration,” she said. «You are here for your victory. I am here because of my defeat. But we are all here to do the work of this great nation. Roy Temple, a former assistant to the Carnahans and Jean Carnahan's chief of staff, said he saw Carnahan at his 90th birthday celebration last year and told him, "Jean, you are like a flower that blooms wherever you plant it.
She just did everything with an unlimited amount of intelligence, ingenuity and creativity," Temple said. "Whatever she was doing, whether it was planning a party or pushing legislation, it was in her nature to see it through to the end." Temple said that although Carnahan served only two years in the Senate, he served at an extraordinary time. While she was there, she lost her home in a fire and was recovering from the loss of her husband and her son. She was there during the September 11, 2001, attacks and was working in the Hart Senate Office Building during the anthrax scare; Temple remembers working with her in a hideout in the basement of the Capitol at the time. "It was an extraordinary and stressful time and she did the job well and with great dignity," Temple said. "It was a privilege to work with her." Temple said Carnahan and then Sen. Joe Biden had a connection because she was one of the few people who had suffered a similar loss and could understand what she was going through. Carnahan authored seven books, including two about the Missouri governor's mansion and Missouri, where Carnahan's husband and son are buried. A public service is being planned in St. Louis and details are expected to be announced later.
Jean Carnahan graduated a year later from George Washington University with a bachelor's degree in business and public administration, and they later raised four children on a farm near Rolla, Missouri. She served as first lady of Missouri after her husband's election as governor in 1992 and during his two terms. On October 16, 2000, the governor, the couple's son, Roger, and an aide died in a plane crash. After Mel Carnahan was posthumously elected three weeks later, acting Governor Roger Wilson appointed Jean Carnahan to fill the seat left vacant by the America Mobile Number List death of her husband. He served from January 3, 2001 to November 25, 2002. Following his appointment, Carnahan gave a speech on the Senate floor highlighting his tragic path to the chamber. “My name has never been on a ballot. On election night there was no victory celebration,” she said. «You are here for your victory. I am here because of my defeat. But we are all here to do the work of this great nation. Roy Temple, a former assistant to the Carnahans and Jean Carnahan's chief of staff, said he saw Carnahan at his 90th birthday celebration last year and told him, "Jean, you are like a flower that blooms wherever you plant it.
She just did everything with an unlimited amount of intelligence, ingenuity and creativity," Temple said. "Whatever she was doing, whether it was planning a party or pushing legislation, it was in her nature to see it through to the end." Temple said that although Carnahan served only two years in the Senate, he served at an extraordinary time. While she was there, she lost her home in a fire and was recovering from the loss of her husband and her son. She was there during the September 11, 2001, attacks and was working in the Hart Senate Office Building during the anthrax scare; Temple remembers working with her in a hideout in the basement of the Capitol at the time. "It was an extraordinary and stressful time and she did the job well and with great dignity," Temple said. "It was a privilege to work with her." Temple said Carnahan and then Sen. Joe Biden had a connection because she was one of the few people who had suffered a similar loss and could understand what she was going through. Carnahan authored seven books, including two about the Missouri governor's mansion and Missouri, where Carnahan's husband and son are buried. A public service is being planned in St. Louis and details are expected to be announced later.