Phyllis T. Kernick (December 14, 1924 – January 21, 2009) was a Democratic member of the

Pennsylvania House of Representatives The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Pennsylvania General Assembly, the legislature of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. There are 203 members, elected for two-year terms from single member districts. It ...

Formative years and family

Born in

Penn Hills, Pennsylvania Penn Hills is a township with home rule status in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 41,059 as of the 2020 census. Penn Hills is the second-largest municipality in Allegheny County, after Pittsburgh. History In 178 ...

on December 14, 1924, Kernick graduated from Penn Hills High School and the two-year business program of the Robert Morris School of Business (now

Robert Morris University Robert Morris University (RMU) is a private university in Moon Township, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1921 and is named after Robert Morris, known as the "financier of the mericanrevolution." It enrolls nearly 5,000 students and offers 60 b ...

). She then pursued further studies at Duquesne University, Point Park College (now Point Park University), and the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the universit ...

's Institute of Local Government. She and her husband, William Kernick, had six children between 1947 and 1960.

Career

Employed as a secretary with the international law firm of Reed Smith, she was elected as auditor for the

Allegheny County Allegheny County () is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in Southwestern Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,250,578, making it the state's seco ...

Hospital Development Authority in 1964, and was then elected as treasurer of Penn Hills Township, serving in that capacity from 1969 to 1976. During her early career, she had also served as a member of the Allegheny Regional Planning Council and the Governor's Justice Commission. Elected as a Democrat to the

for the 1974 term, she was subsequently reelected in 1976 and 1978. Following her resignation from the Pennsylvania House on January 7, 1980, she was elected as mayor of Penn Hills Township. She served in that capacity from 1980 to 1984. Roughly a decade later, she was elected to the Penn Hills Township Council, and served on that leadership body from 1994 to 1998.

Death and interment

Kernick died from congestive heart failure at the age of eighty-four on January 21, 2009 in Penn Hills Township, and was interred at the Plum Creek Cemetery in Plum, Pennsylvania.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kernick, Phyllis Democratic Party members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Women state legislators in Pennsylvania 2009 deaths 1924 births 20th-century American politicians 20th-century American women politicians 21st-century American women