Former U-S Senator Jean Carnahan has died at the age of 90 following a brief illness.
Carnahan was appointed to the Senate in 2001 after the posthumous election of her husband, Governor Mel Carnahan, who died in a plane crash in October of 2000.
Carnahan won the election over John Ashcroft, who went on to become U-S Attorney General.
House Minority Leader Crystal Quade of Springfield calls Jean Carnahan “matriarch of the greatest political dynasty in modern Missouri history,” adding her “dedication to the people of Missouri was unsurpassed”
Carnahan died at a hospice in suburban St. Louis.