Former Missouri state Rep. Kathie Conway died Saturday of brain cancer. She was 69.
Conway represented a St. Charles County-based House district from 2011 through the beginning of 2019. Before running for office, Conway worked as a criminal and civil investigator.
Among other positions, Conway worked as an investigator in the Madison County state’s attorney’s office and for General Motors examining workers' compensation fraud.
During an appearance on St. Louis Public Radio’s Politically Speaking podcast in 2016, Conway said she was let go from her General Motors contracting jobs during the 2008 recession. With then-Rep. Joe Smith leaving the Missouri House because of term limits, some Republicans asked Conway to consider running in 2010.
Conway said she was initially reluctant to jump into Missouri politics.
“I laughed and said: ‘No, that's not what I do. I work on campaigns. I'm never the candidate,’” Conway said. “But once I was laid off and had some free time, I told my husband I would like to do this. I don't want to look down the road and say: ‘Gee, I wish I had.’”
Conway won all of her races for state representative by fairly wide margins. She eventually became the chairwoman of an appropriations committee that provides funding to the state’s public safety and corrections departments.
But perhaps Conway’s most high-profile moment came in 2018, right after then-Gov. Eric Greitens admitted he had an affair with a woman before he took office.
Conway was one of the first GOP lawmakers to suggest the Republican chief executive step aside. Both Conway and then-state Rep. Marsha Haefner faced withering criticism from Greitens’ allies for that stance.
Once the bipartisan drumbeat for Greitens to go became louder after a House committee put out a highly critical report in April 2018, Conway stressed that she wasn’t planning on going on a "told you so" campaign.
“This will probably be the absolute hardest vote I’ve ever made in my life to overturn what the people wanted — or not to overturn what they wanted,” Conway said in 2018. “I’m getting older by the minute. I’ve got more gray hairs than I did yesterday at this time. It’s so darn important.”
Gov. Mike Parson appointed Conway to the Missouri Ethics Commission after she left office in 2019 due to term limits.
Conway was married to Patrick Conway, a former police officer who died in 2023. She is survived by her son, Ryan.
