Helen Holt, the first woman in West Virginia to hold a statewide elected office, died of heart failure Sunday at age 101, according to a news release from Secretary of State Natalie Tennant's office.
Holt served West Virginia as its 19th secretary of state, from 1957 to 1959.
Tennant said she met Holt in 2009 and the two remained close.
"Though she would never admit it, she was a political trailblazer for her time," Tennant said in the release. "She put the needs of her state and her fellow citizens above her own personal needs and her own personal grief. She never considered herself a pioneer, though. She always told me she was, 'just there to do a good job.' I would argue with anyone who said she didn't."
Holt would sometimes call Tennant's office with suggestions, support and a different perspective, the release said.
"She grounded us in tradition and gave us an appreciation of our past," Tennant said. "I am a better leader because of her influence."
Although Tennant referenced the woman's devotion to West Virginia, Holt was not born here. She was born Helen Froelich, in Gridley, Illinois, in 1913. She came to the Mountain State after marrying then-U.S. Senator Rush Holt, R-W.Va.
In college, Holt studied zoology, even though her professors discouraged her. She eventually started teaching at the National Park College for women, in Forest Glen.
While she was there, her students sent her picture to Life magazine, to be featured along with other young teachers.
Her future husband saw the picture and pointed it out to his sister, who knew Holt and arranged for the two to meet. They wed in 1941. However, their marriage was cut short when, in 1955, Rush Holt died at age 49 after a fight with cancer.
Helen Holt finished out his term in the U.S. Senate and was then appointed by Gov. Cecil Underwood to fill a vacant secretary of state seat. She replaced D. Pitt O'Brien, who had died while in office.
After serving as secretary of state, President Dwight Eisenhower, whom she'd met as a candidate, appointed Holt to a position with the Federal Housing Administration in 1960. There, she created high standards of care for the elderly.
"Anything I did, I had to do it well - if it was sweeping the floor or cutting the grass. I put my work first," Holt is quoted as saying in the news release after receiving an honorary doctorate of humane letters from West Virginia University. "I knew I had to have a job, and I knew I had to do it well."
A memorial service for Holt will be held July 19 in Boca Raton, Florida, and on Aug. 15 in Washington, D.C.
For more information about memorial arrangements, email rush@rushholt.com