A legacy beyond politics: Remembering former Missouri House representative Mary Kasten

Mary Kasten, a longtime Cape Girardeau school board and Missouri House of Representatives member, died Saturday, Oct. 12, at 96, leaving a legacy for the ages.

“There was never anybody quite like Mary in Jefferson City,” said Peter Kinder, a Cape Girardeau native and former lieutenant governor of Missouri. “… You’ve never seen a member more beloved on both sides of the aisle.”

Born on June 8, 1928, in Matthews, Kasten grew up on a small New Madrid County farm. She studied at Matthews High School and earned a Bachelor of Science in education at Southeast Missouri State University, where she met her future husband, Mel Kasten. They married in 1949 and had three children.

Mary Kasten was first elected to the Cape Girardeau Board of Education in 1961. She served in that position for 20 of the next 21 years, taking on numerous roles including president, vice president and treasurer. She also was on the Southeast Missouri State University Board of Regents from 1979 to 1982, becoming just the second woman to hold that position.

She then turned her attention to a larger political role. Kasten was elected to the 159th District of the Missouri House of Representatives in November 1982. She served with distinction even after her region was reorganized into the 158th District a decade later. She retired from the Legislature to look after her ailing husband in 2000.

Kinder said Kasten was a great complement to her husband, who was a skilled surgeon in his own right before dying in 2004. Kinder was a member of the Missouri Senate for the last seven years of Kasten’s House tenure.

Matt Henson, chairman of the Cape Girardeau County Republican Central Committee, shared an anecdote about the type of politician — and the type of person — Kasten was.

“She looked at recidivism rate, people going back to prison after they’re released, and one of the common characteristics was that they hadn’t graduated from high school, so the lack of an education would impede their recovery,” he said.

Kasten decided to remedy this by introducing legislation to make getting a GED a condition of prisoners’ release.

“Her political opponents started calling her mean-spirited for encouraging people to get an education. Well, the people that knew Mary well knew she was anything but mean-spirited. She was a gloriously wonderful woman that served the community well, and the fact that she would be called mean-spirited was comical,” Henson said.

For years afterward, at political events, Kasten would jokingly be introduced as the "mean-spirited" Mary Kasten.

“She wore it as a badge of honor. She would even remind people that she was ‘mean-spirited’ and she would giggle,” Henson said.

Kathy Swan, who represented Cape Girardeau’s 147th District in the Missouri House of Representatives from 2013 to 2021, served on the school board a decade after Kasten. Even so, when she attended school board days in Jefferson City, Kasten always had refreshments available. Swan called her a fabulous mentor.

“Anyone she met who was new to the area and interested in the legislative process, she would take them under her wing and help inform them and point them in the right direction to try to get them the resources they need to learn about the governmental processes,” she said.

Kasten returned to Jefferson City in 2008 after winning a special election to take over the 158th District seat following the resignation of its officeholder. She chose not to run for reelection and served for most of that year alone.

But life was not just about politics for Kasten. She was involved in several other endeavors outside of the office.

She founded the Community Caring Council, now known as Community Partnership of Southeast Missouri. She also served on the Missouri School Board Association for nine years, including one as its president. In addition, Kasten served four years on the Vocational State Advisory. She was part of the League of Women Voters, Meals on Wheels, St. Andrew Lutheran Church and more.

Kasten won a bevy of awards both during and following her time in office. These include, but are not limited to, the 1991 Women of Achievement Award from the Cape Girardeau Zonta Club; the 1998 Barrier Freedom Award from the SEMO Alliance for Disability Independence; the 2000 Outstanding Service Award, alongside her husband, from the Southeast Missouri Hospital Association; the 2006 Rush H. Limbaugh Award from the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce; and the 2014 Spirit of America Award from the Southeast Missourian. Kasten won several honors from local Republican Party groups as well.

“She left a legacy for all those of us who have been involved in some form or another in the legislative process, the governmental process … there was none better than Mary for that,” Swan said.