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Jean Carnahan, who in 2001 turned the primary girl to symbolize Missouri within the U.S. Senate after being appointed to fill her husband’s seat following his posthumous election, died on Tuesday in St. Louis County, Mo. She was 90.
Her household confirmed the loss of life, at a hospice, however didn’t specify the trigger.
Ms. Carnahan, the spouse of Mel Carnahan, a former governor of Missouri, was appointed to the U.S. Senate from Missouri in December 2000 following Mr. Carnahan’s election simply weeks after he was killed in a airplane crash with one among their sons and a longtime aide. Ms. Carnahan was sworn in on Jan. 3, 2001.
“I do know I didn’t come to the U.S. Senate in the identical method you probably did,” Ms. Carnahan stated in remarks to her new Senate colleagues. “I didn’t have a long-term, private dedication to a marketing campaign. My title has by no means been on a poll. On election evening there was no victory celebration. You’re right here due to your win; I’m right here due to my loss. However we’re all right here to do the work of this nice nation.”
Ms. Carnahan, a reasonable Democrat who had by no means held public workplace earlier than being appointed to fill her husband’s seat, served for practically two years. She ran to maintain the seat within the 2002 election however misplaced to Jim Expertise, a Republican, by 22,000 votes.
Following her defeat, Ms. Carnahan informed The New York Occasions that regardless of the tumult and heartache she had endured, she had at all times pushed bitterness apart. “It’s an acid in your life that corrodes your soul,” she stated.
Throughout her time within the Senate, Ms. Carnahan centered on nationwide safety and situations for members of the army, working to safe well being care advantages for reservists and Nationwide Guard personnel, in response to a household assertion. She was a part of the primary Congressional delegation to Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist assaults. She additionally helped introduce a legislation requiring companies to make swift digital reporting of insider buying and selling.
As first woman of Missouri throughout her husband’s two phrases as governor, Ms. Carnahan promoted on-site day care facilities for working households, supported shelters for victims of home abuse and was an advocate for seniors and dealing households, her household stated.
She revealed a number of books, together with two concerning the historic Governor’s Mansion in Missouri.
Ms. Carnahan was born Jean Carpenter on Dec. 20, 1933, in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Anacostia, a working-class neighborhood within the metropolis’s southeast part. Her father, Reginald Carpenter, was a plumber; her mom, Alvina Carpenter, was a hairdresser.
She met Mr. Carnahan once they had been youngsters at a Sunday evening youth group at a Baptist church, and so they sat subsequent to one another in school at Anacostia Excessive Faculty, the household stated. The couple had been married on June 12, 1954.
The next 12 months, Ms. Carnahan graduated from George Washington College with a bachelor’s diploma in enterprise and public administration. She and Mr. Carnahan raised 4 kids on a farm outdoors of Rolla, Mo., a small group within the Ozarks.
She is survived by two sons: Russ and Tom; a daughter, Robin; and 5 grandchildren.
Roger Wilson, the previous Missouri governor who appointed Ms. Carnahan to the Senate, stated in an announcement on Tuesday that she was his “first and solely alternative” to take the seat received by her husband.
Sheelagh McNeill contributed analysis.
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