Former U.S. Sen. Jean Carnahan will be the keynote speaker at the annual Vance-Aycock dinner this weekend. 

Carnahan's selection is notable partly for when it was announced: four days before the dinner, which serves as a fundraiser, rally and party for state Democrats.

Democratic Party chairman David Young said he was proud to have Carnahan speak at the 49th Vance-Aycock dinner.

"Her remarkable achievements, leadership, and dedication to improving the lives of working families are an inspiration to all of us."

Senator Carnahan, the first woman to represent Missouri in the U.S. Senate, was appointed to the seat in 2001 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 over John Ashcroft to the Senate posthumously.

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.

Carnahan’s son Russ is currently a U.S. Representative her daughter Robin is currently Missouri’s Secretary of State and running for the U.S. Senate in 2010.

Former Sen. Jean Carnahan will again tour North Carolina.

The former Missouri senator previously visited the state in April as part of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's primary battle.

On Tuesday, she will stop in Wilson at 10:30 a.m. for an economic community meeting with former First Lady Carolyn Hunt. Carnahan's husband, Mel, and Hunt's husband, Jim, were governors of Missouri and North Carolina during the mid to late 1990s.

She'll then hold another community meeting at Print Products Etc. in Louisburg, and a meet and greet with Durham women at the home of Jean O'Barr.

The trip is part of a recent string of high-profile visits by Obama and his surrogates, including his wife Michelle and running mate Joe Biden.