Carnahan, Jean, 1933-

<p>Jean Carnahan, the former first lady of Missouri, was appointed to the United States Senate to fill the vacant seat from Missouri caused by the death of her husband of 46 years, Mel E. Carnahan. Elected to Congress three weeks after his death in a plane crash, Mel Carnahan became the first U.S. Senator elected posthumously. Despite having never held public office, Jean Carnahan earned the distinction of being the first woman Senator from Missouri.</p>

<p>Jean Carpenter was born on December 20, 1933, in Washington, DC. The daughter of Reginald Carpenter, a plumber, and Alvina Carpenter, a hairdresser, Jean was just 15 when she met her future husband, Mel Carnahan, the son of Missouri Congressman Albert Sidney Johnston Carnahan. Both Mel and Jean attended Anacostia High School in Washington, DC, where they sat next to each other in class. In 1951 Jean became the first in her family to graduate from high school. Two years later, Mel and Jean married upon Mel’s graduation from college. Jean soon followed suit, earning a BA in business and public administration from George Washington University in 1955. The couple went on to have four children: Roger, Russ, Robin, and Tom. In addition to her responsibilities as a homemaker and mother, Jean Carnahan was a public speaker and an author. She also played an active role in her husband’s numerous political campaigns for state office, writing speeches and creating an extensive card-catalogued database of potential supporters and donors.</p>

<p>When Mel Carnahan became governor of Missouri in 1993, his wife flourished in her role as first lady. Interested in addressing the needs of children, Jean Carnahan helped to implement mandatory child immunization, organized projects to promote children’s increased exposure to culture and art, and cofounded Children in the Workplace to create childcare for working parents at their place of employment.</p>

<p>Jean Anne Carpenter Carnahan (born December 20, 1933) is an American politician and writer who was the First Lady of Missouri from 1993 to 2000, and served as the state's junior United States Senator from 2001 to 2002. A Democrat, she was appointed to fill the Senate seat of her husband Mel Carnahan, who had been posthumously elected, becoming the first woman to represent Missouri in the U.S. Senate.</p>

<p>Born Jean Anne Carpenter in Washington, D.C., to a working-class family, Carnahan was determined to go to college. She and her future husband, Mel, both went to Anacostia High School where they sat next to each other in class. Jean worked through the year while attending George Washington University. She graduated in 1955 with a degree in Business and Public Administration, the first in her family to graduate from high school and college. She is an alumna of Kappa Delta sorority.</p>

<p>She married Mel Carnahan in 1954 and two years later they moved to his home state of Missouri. As her husband entered politics, she became his political partner. He was elected Governor of Missouri, serving from 1993 to 2000. She was an activist First Lady: an advocate for on-site daycare centers for working families, childhood immunization, abuse centers, the arts, and Habitat for Humanity.</p>