RALEIGH, NC – North Carolina Democratic Party Chairman David Young announced today that former U.S. Senator Jean Carnahan will be the keynote speaker at this year’s Vance Aycock Dinner on Saturday, Oct. 3 at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville.

Carnahan is a recognized writer, speaker, political activist, and advocate for children and working families.

“We are proud to have Senator Carnahan as our guest speaker for the 49th Annual Vance Aycock Dinner,” Young said. “Her remarkable achievements, leadership, and dedication to improving the lives of working families are an inspiration to all of us.”

Senator Carnahan became the first woman to represent Missouri in the U.S. Senate in 2001. She was appointed to the seat after her late husband, Gov. Mel Carnahan, was killed in an airplane crash along with their son Randy and a campaign advisor just three weeks before the 2000 election. Missouri voters elected Governor Carnahan to the Senate posthumously.

During her two years in the Senate, she was a leading advocate for working families, children, and our men and women in uniform.
She was the fifth woman to ever serve on the Armed Services Committee and secured an extension of health care benefits for returning reservists and National Guard personnel.
Prior to serving in the Senate Carnahan served as Missouri's First Lady from 1993 to 2000. She was an advocate for on-site day care centers for working families, for childhood immunization, and for abuse centers, the arts, and Habitat for Humanity.

The Carnahan family continues their commitment to public service today. Senator Carnahan’s son Russ is currently a U.S. Representative from the 3rd District and her daughter Robin is currently Missouri’s Secretary of State and running for the U.S. Senate in 2010.

Carnahan is the author of three books: If Walls Could Talk, a history of Missouri’s First Families; Don’t Let the Fire Go Out, an autobiography; and The Tide Always Comes Back, a collection of inspirational essays.