ST. LOUIS (AP) — Children and grandchildren of former U.S. Sen. Jean Carnahan of Missouri recalled her wit, curiosity, kindness and hard work during a public memorial service on Saturday.
Carnahan, 90, died Jan. 30 in hospice care in suburban St. Louis after a short illness.
“In the last few days, as if preparing to be shot out of the cannon, Mom told us, ‘I’m ready to blast out,’” one of her sons, Russ Carnahan, said to hundreds gathered at The Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. “And of course, Mom had a file for this day, containing the title page ‘Mere service suggestions.’
“So welcome to the service Mom planned.”
Carnahan became Missouri’s first female U.S. senator when she was appointed in 2001 to replace her husband, Mel Carnahan. The two-term Democratic governor was running for Senate against incumbent Republican John Ashcroft when Carnahan died in a plane crash that also killed his son, Randy, and campaign adviser Chris Sifford, just weeks before the 2000 election.