Helen Chenoweth-Hage - Later Life and Death

Later Life and Death

During her final term in 1999, Chenoweth married rancher and author Wayne Hage in Boise and changed her name to Helen Chenoweth-Hage. After leaving Congress, she moved to Hage's Nevada ranch, where the two continued to write and speak on private property rights issues. Wayne Hage died at the age of 68 on June 5, 2006.

After leaving Congress, Chenoweth-Hage continued to make headlines. In 2003 at the Boise Airport she was selected by the Transportation Security Administration for a hand search before they would permit her to board a plane for her Nevada home. Chenoweth-Hage requested to see a copy of the regulation granting United States Department of Homeland Security the authority to search her without cause. When the request was denied, she refused to submit to the search and elected to make the 300-mile (480 km) trip by rental car. "Our borders are wide open and yet they're shaking down a 66-year-old white grandmother they greeted by name," she said of the incident. "It's time the American people say no to this kind of invasion. It's a question of personal privacy. There shouldn't be that kind of search without reasonable cause."

On October 2, 2006, Chenoweth-Hage was killed after being thrown from the passenger seat of a vehicle that overturned on an isolated central Nevada highway near Tonopah. She was not wearing a seatbelt and was thrown from the car. Her daughter-in-law and grandson, who were also in the car, suffered only minor injuries.

Chenoweth-Hage was memorialized at a service held in Meridian, Idaho, on October 9, 2006.