JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Former U.S. Sen. Jean Carnahan, who became the first female senator to represent Missouri after she was appointed to replace her husband following his death, died Tuesday. She was 90.
Carnahan, a Democrat, was appointed to the Senate in 2000 after the posthumous election of her husband, Gov. Mel Carnahan, and she served until November 2002, having lost a special election that month to Republican Jim Talent.
“Mom passed peacefully after a long and rich life. She was a fearless trailblazer. She was brilliant, creative, compassionate and dedicated to her family and her fellow Missourians,” her family said in a statement.
Her family did not specify the cause of death but said Carnahan died after a brief illness.
Carnahan was born Dec. 20, 1933, in Washington, D.C., and grew up in the nation’s capital. Her father worked as a plumber and her 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 at a class in high school, according to information provided by the family. They were married June 12, 1954.