Madeleine Albright, the first female secretary of state in the history of the United States, has died of cancer at 84.
Her death was announced by her family in a post on Madeleine’s Twitter handle on Wednesday.
“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 post reads.
It added;
The cause was cancer. She was surrounded by family and friends. We have lost a loving mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, and friend.
Below is a statement from the family of @Madeleine: pic.twitter.com/C7Xt0EN5c9
— Madeleine Albright (@madeleine) March 23, 2022
Speaking on the development, Ned Price, spokesperson of the US department of state, said Madeleine’s impact on the country is significant.
He stated;
The impact that she has had on this building is felt every single day. She was a trailblazer as the first female secretary of state, and quite literally opened doors for a large element of our workforce.
Albright was an influential member of former President Bill Clinton’s administration. She was well known for helping steer Western foreign policy in the aftermath of the Cold War.
Albright, who was a Czech immigrant, became America’s top diplomat in 1997 during the tenure of Bill Clinton, former US president.
She was initially born with the name Marie Jana Korbelova in Prague in 1937, but became a US citizen in 1957 after her family moved to the United States in 1948, seeking political asylum.
On her Twitter bio, Albright, an author, is described as a “refugee, prof, bizwoman, pin collector & occasional drummer”.
Before her death, Albright was praised for efforts to promote democracy, and is said to have been at the forefront of ending ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, a country in south-east Europe.
She served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations before becoming the nation’s top diplomat in Mr Clinton’s second term.
Some of her achievements include the expansion of NATO, intervention in the Balkans to stop genocide and ethnic cleansing, and campaign to reduce the spread of nuclear weapons.
Albright also championed human rights and democracy across the globe.
