Peggy Kerns

Margaret "Peggy" Kerns née Shoup (March 17, 1941 – November 14, 2020) was a government ethics educator, government official, and state legislator in Colorado. From 1989 to 1997, she served in the Colorado House of Representatives as a Democrat. She was then appointed a government official by U.S. president Bill Clinton. She later became a leader in Government Ethics education.[1] She was the first woman to serve as Minority Leader in the Colorado House.[2]

She was born in Lexington, Ohio to Ronald and Marie Strausbaugh Shoup. She graduated from St. Aloysius High School in New Lexington in 1959 and received a B.A. degree in journalism in 1963 from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh where she met her husband Pat. They were married November 9, 1963.[3] She graduated from the University of Colorado at Denver with a Masters in Public Administration. She had two children and four grandchildren.[4]

She served on Aurora, Colorado's City Council for six years and was president of the school PTA at her children's school. She also served on charity boards.[1] She co-sponsored the Colorado Charter Schools Act in 1993.[5][6] She left the state house due to term limits.