[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 16]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 23735-23736]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



              IN MEMORY OF MISSOURI GOVERNOR MEL CARNAHAN

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. IKE SKELTON

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 19, 2000

  Mr. SKELTON. Mr. Speaker, it is with deep sadness that I inform the 
House of the death of my good friend Governor Mel Carnahan, of Rolla, 
Missouri.
  Governor Carnahan, 66, the fifty-first Governor of the State of 
Missouri, his son Roger Andrew ``Randy'' Carnahan, and a long-time 
advisor, Chris Sifford, died in an airplane crash on October 16, 2000, 
in rural Jefferson County.
  Born in the small Ozark town of Birch Tree, Missouri, in 1934, 
Governor Carnahan lived his early years in Shannon and Carter Counties. 
He was the son of rural schoolteachers, and he carried on a 
longstanding family commitment to education during his distinguished 
career of public service. His father, the late A.S.J. Carnahan, a 
contemporary of President Harry Truman, served in the United States 
Congress for 14 years before being named by President Kennedy as the 
first U.S. Ambassador to Sierra Leone. His mother, the late Mary 
Carnahan, was an inspiration to hundreds of school children during her 
many years as a high school English teacher.
  Governor Carnahan began his lifelong commitment to public service at 
the young age of 26, when he was elected municipal judge in his 
hometown of Rolla in 1961. Two years later, he won a seat in the 
Missouri House of Representatives and was elected Majority Floor Leader 
in his second term. Following his four years in the Missouri House, he 
returned to his hometown of Rolla where he built a successful law 
practice. In 1980, he was overwhelmingly elected State Treasurer and 
served in this position for four years. The Governor returned to public 
office in 1988, becoming Missouri's 42nd Lieutenant Governor. In a 
landslide victory in 1992, he won the Governor's office and Missouri 
voters returned him to office for a second term in 1996.
  Governor Carnahan was running for the United States Senate, after two 
remarkably successful four-year terms as Governor. Among the major 
accomplishments of his administration were the Outstanding Schools Act, 
a comprehensive package of reforms, new resources and accountability 
measures to improve Missouri's public schools; major tax relief for 
working families; welfare reform; some of the toughest anti-crime laws 
in the nation;

[[Page 23736]]

and primary health care services for thousands of previously uninsured 
Missouri children. Governor Carnahan will forever be remembered as an 
advocate for children and working families.
  Governor Carnahan held a Bachelor's Degree in business administration 
from George Washington University and graduated from the University of 
Missouri-Columbia Law School in 1959 with the highest scholastic 
honors--Law Review and Order of the Coif. He was a United States Air 
Force veteran, a 33rd degree Mason, and a longtime member of the First 
Baptist Church in Rolla. He served as Chairman of both the Southern and 
Democratic Governors' Association.
  Mr. Speaker, Mel Carnahan was a good friend and a truly great 
American. I know the Members of the House will join me in extending 
heartfelt condolences to his family: his wife of 46 years, Jean 
Carnahan; two sons, Russ and Tom Carnahan; one daughter, Robin 
Carnahan, of St. Louis; one daughter-in-law, Debra Carnahan; one 
brother and sister-in-law, Bob and Oma Carnahan, and two grandsons, 
Austin and Andrew.

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