TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) – Marigene Valiquette, Ohio’s longest-serving state legislator, died Tuesday shortly before her 100th birthday.
According to The Blade, 13 Action News’ newspaper partner, Valiquette died Tuesday at the age of 99.
Valiquette served in the House of Representatives for six years and in the Senate for 18 years between 1962 and 1986, making her the longest-serving woman in the Senate. At times during her tenure, she was the only woman in the Senate.
She spent her final years in an assisted living facility in central Ohio.
Valiquette officially retired in 1985.
According to her biography on the Ohio Statehouse website, she has been honored for her leadership with induction into the Women’s Hall of Fame, as Outstanding Legislator of the Year in 1978 by the Ohio Trial Lawyer’s Association, the Headliner Award from Women in Communications, the ACLU of Ohio Foundation Award, a member of the Ohio Commission on the Status of Women, the Humanitarian Award from Dynamic Leadership, Inc., and Democrat of the Year by the Federated Democratic Women of Ohio.”
Valiquette graduated from Toledo Central Catholic, the University of Toledo and the UT School of Law.
She will be buried privately next to her parents at Calvary Cemetery in Toledo.
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