Jill and I and the entire Biden family are saddened to learn of the passing of a dear friend and one of Delaware’s true pioneers: Governor Ruth Ann Minner. Ruth Ann was one of the most remarkable, inspiring public servants we’ve ever known. ... We shared more than a home state; blessed with the bounty of love of family, we also shared the pain of burying pieces of our soul – spouses and children – and trying to find purpose in their memories. Our lives will be emptier without her, but our beloved Delaware is stronger because of her service, and our nation is stronger because of the power of her example. Our prayers are with the entire Minner and Ingram families. Delaware has lost a legendary leader. The nation has lost a great American. May God bless Ruth Ann Minner.”

President Joe Biden

Put simply: Ruth Ann Minner worked tirelessly. She was indefatigable, and she always sought to do the right thing. Voters in Delaware rewarded her for that and she rewarded them with years of service that we can all be proud of.”

U.S. Sen. Tom Carper

“Annie and I fondly remember attending her annual picnics at her home down in Milford, where nothing would light up her face more than talking about her family, particularly her grandchildren. She was a devoted matriarch to not just her own family but to our entire state. Ruth Ann Minner was tough as nails, kept her word, and cared deeply about the people of Delaware. She will be sorely missed.”

U.S. Sen. Chris Coons

Those who served with and knew Ruth Ann best admired her work ethic, compassion and dedication. She had a warm heart and a tough resolve, which made her an incredibly effective leader. We are deeply saddened by her passing, and we hope her stories are told so that her memory lives on forever.”

Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf , Rep. Valerie Maglio Longhurst and Rep. Larry Mitchell

Governor Minner was a get-it-done public servant. She had a spine of steel, but she was also very kind and never forgot where she came from. She dedicated her life to moving Delaware forward.”

Former Gov. Jack Markell

Governor Ruth Ann Minner is a true Delaware trailblazer and her service to the people of our state will never be forgotten. Governor Minner’s story is also the story of the promise of America.”

New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer

I am saddened by the passing of Governor Ruth Ann Minner, a true leader for Delaware women and girls. ... I had the pleasure of working with her during my time as a councilman and will always remember her ability to work across party lines to achieve what was best for the State. I admire that she never forgot where she came from and spent decades fighting to improve the lives of all Delawareans. Linda and I will remember her life of service and keep her family in our prayers.”

Newark Mayor Jerry Clifton

Trailblazing, remarkable, tough, tenacious, one-of-a-kind — and, despite all that, humble. That’s how Delaware’s leaders remember the late former-Gov. Ruth Ann Minner.

The first woman elected as governor of the state, serving from 2001-09, died Thursday. She was 86.

Gov. John Carney, who was elected alongside her in 2001 as lieutenant governor, called her a “leader who had a real common touch” in a statement Thursday.

“Governor Minner focused on raising up the working families of our state because she knew what it meant to struggle. Having grown up poor in Slaughter Beach, she brought that perspective to her job every day, and she never lost her attachment to those roots,” he said.

“Her path to the governor’s office was a unique one,” he said.

Born Jan. 17, 1935, Ruth Ann Coverdale grew up on a tenant farm near Milford, eventually leaving school to work on the family farm. At 32, she found herself widowed with three sons to raise. In the years that followed, she worked two jobs, earned her GED diploma and went to college.

After she remarried in 1969, she and her husband started a towing business before she went to work for then-Gov. Sherman Tribbitt.

That was her first step into the political sphere, where she would have a foothold for more than three decades. With the encouragement of friends and family, she ran for the state House of Representatives in 1974.

After four consecutive terms in the House, voters elected her to the state Senate in 1982.

The climb continued: In 1992, then-U.S. Rep. Thomas R. Carper picked then-Sen. Minner to run with him on the Democratic ticket as governor and lieutenant governor, respectively. That year, she became the first woman in state history to be elected lieutenant governor.

She was re-elected in 1996 but her eye was already on the next step, she started putting together the resources she would need to make her bid for the governorship. And in November 2000, she made more history when she secured 59% of the vote to become the First State’s first female governor.

“The voters told us very clearly, they like what we’ve done,” the governor-elect said at the time.

In her 35 years in Delaware government, she focused on environmental and child care issues. She helped to pass the Clean Indoor Air Act to ban smoking in restaurants and bars — surviving the “ban Ruth Ann” remarks of the act — signed the Student Excellence Equals Degree scholarship into law, placed reading specialists in every elementary school and math specialists in every middle school, signed full-day kindergarten into law and fought for common-sense gun safety, according to a release from the state Senate.

And almost exactly two decades after she was first elected governor of the First State, she was recognized by Joe Biden, who, upon his presidential election victory in Wilmington on Nov. 7, called out to his former colleague.

“Is that Ruth Ann?” he asked, as he pointed out Delaware’s leaders in attendance.

‘Last of the old guard’

Erik Raser-Schramm, who coordinated Gov. Minner’s re-election campaign in 2003 and eventually became the Delaware Democratic Party’s chair, described her as a “strong advocate for the everyday, average Delawareans. She looked out for all Delawareans but her background made her sure to make sure to look and make sure that everyone was taken care of.”

Mr. Raser-Schramm said her path through life was “an American success story at its best. Every politician has their political enemies but nobody will disparage her story and how she got there.”

“She was such an inspiring woman to face all the challenges she did and accomplish so much,” he said.

Terry Pepper, president of Kent County Levy Court commissioners, served as part of Gov. Minner’s executive staff during her term as governor as the liaison to all the local and county governments.

A retired trooper, Mr. Pepper also was her “policy person,” he said, for safety and homeland security.

“If someone told her she couldn’t do something, she’d prove them wrong,” Commissioner Pepper said. “She was a tough lady, very tough.”

Commissioner Pepper praised Gov. Minner for ability to put anyone she spoke to at ease.

“She could talk to anybody — no matter if you were a corporate person or a farmer in the field,” he said. “She could talk to them and relate to them.”

It was her ability to relate to anyone — that “real common touch” — that made her a “statesman for decades,” said Gary Simpson, a former Republican state senator from Milford.

“Really, while she and I didn’t get along that well legislatively — not that we had open arguments; she was on the other side of the aisle — but certainly she served Delaware well and certainly her constituents,” he said. “She was close to the ground for as long as she was in the legislature. And then when she became executive, she fulfilled that role magnificently.”

With the recollections of the full scope of her service to Delaware came the little moments too.

“I remember going back as far as the House, if I really wanted to know something about legislation … Ruth Ann, she studied the bills,” said George Bunting, former Democratic state senator and representative. “She read the bills. She knew her stuff. I know being in committee meetings with her, she ran a firm meeting. She had been there where most people haven’t been. I always admired her.”

He recalled how she saved the Indian River Marina from going private and the work that went into creating the first veterans nursing home in Milford.

“We had like 64 meetings, and we finally, with her doing the work,  built the first veterans nursing home, in Milford. ” he said. “I just admired her character and her honesty. You knew when you talked with Ruth Ann you were getting the straight shot. She was just a straight-shooter person.”

She had a “political side to her,” noted Joe Booth, a former Republican state senator. “But when you sat down and ate with her, outside of the limelight, it was like eating with your aunt. She was funny and jovial. I might have disagreed with her on some politics, but as a person she was always nice and very informative.”

Jane Brady served as Delaware’s attorney general at the same time Gov. Minner led the state, when they were the first women ascending to those positions in Delaware.

“She had to prove that she was tough enough to not break a sweat when the guys went after her,” Ms. Brady said Thursday. “I know what that’s like, of course.”

Now the Delaware Republican Party chair, Ms. Brady said that Gov. Minner, a Democrat, “understood the political process very well. She made alliances and was able to utilize them.”

Dover Mayor Robin Christiansen called Gov. Minner a pioneer and the “last of the old guard.”

The mayor added that Gov. Minner was the last of the Downstate politicians that “wielded control over the state.”

“She was a great lady. She did a lot for Delaware,” he said. “Her heart was there for the citizens that she serviced. She will be sorely missed because she was the last of the old-time politicians in Delaware.”