Danner, Pat, 1934-

Patsy Ann "Pat" Danner (born January 13, 1934) is a retired American politician. She formerly represented the Missouri's 6th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat.

Born Patsy Ann Berrer in Louisville, Kentucky, she grew up in Bevier, Missouri and attended Hannibal-LaGrange College for one year before dropping out. She married Lavon Danner; they had four children before divorcing. Patsy Danner graduated with a BA in political science from Northeast Missouri State University in 1972. In 1982, Danner remarried to C. Markt Meyer, a retired airline pilot.

Danner became involved in Missouri politics during the 1970s. From 1970 to 1972, she served as the vice chair for the Congressional District Democratic Committee in northeast Missouri and on the Macon County Democratic Committee. From 1973 to 1976, she acted as the chief district aide to U.S. Representative Jerry Lon Litton. Danner lost in the Democratic primary to fill Litton’s seat in the House after his 1976 death. During the Jimmy Carter administration, she served in a sub-Cabinet post as co-chair of the Ozarks Regional Commission from 1977 to 1981; she was the first woman to chair a regional commission. In 1983 she won election to the Missouri state senate, where she served for a decade. She eventually chaired the transportation committee and was vice chair of the education committee.

In 1992 Pat Danner announced her candidacy for the Democratic primary for the U.S. House district she had lost in 1976. Winning the Democratic Party's backing, she won the election with 55 percent of the vote. Congresswoman Danner emerged as a moderate-to-conservative Democrat in the House. As a freshman, she voted in favor of the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 but opposed a nationalized health care system. Danner also voted against the Clinton administration’s 1993 budget and economic stimulus package, both of which she had supported in their early stages. An abortion opponent during her years in the Missouri legislature, Danner moderated her stance somewhat as a Member of the U.S. House, voting against a bill requiring parental notification by minors; she opposed another measure to allow federally financed abortions. She voted against the Brady Handgun Bill, which required a five-day waiting period for the purchase of handguns. From her International Relations seat, Danner was a consistent critic of the Clinton administration’s foreign policy, particularly its decision to send in U.S. troops for peacekeeping duty in the Balkans.

After being diagnosed with breast cancer in the fall of 1999 and receiving treatment, Danner announced in May 2000 that she would not seek re-election to a fifth term. Representative Danner returned to Kansas City after leaving Congress in January 2001.