Trailblazer Madeleine Albright was the first woman to be Secretary of State and broke the glass ceiling for women coming after her.
In her quiet, diplomatic way she served for President Clinton from 1997 to 2001.
She was first selected by Clinton to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations before being promoted to the head of the State Department.
Today, Bill Clinton called her ‘one of the finest Secretaries of State, an outstanding U.N. Ambassador, a brilliant professor, and an extraordinary human being.’
She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from former President Barack Obama in 2012.
On a plane headed to Brussels for an emergency meeting of NATO leaders about Ukraine, Biden sent out a statement calling her a ‘force’ and a woman who broke barriers ‘again and again.’
‘Hers were the hands that turned the tide of history,’ Biden said.
Her family announced Wednesday that she had passed.
‘We are heartbroken to announce that Dr. Madeleine K. Albright, the 64th U.S. Secretary of State and the first woman to hold that position, passed away earlier today. The cause was cancer.’