Evelyn Gandy--pioneer Mississippi Democrat--has died.

[jobycom]

Just a figure I remember and admired from my teen years, but a very impressive figure. She was the first (and so far only) woman elected to three different offices. She ran for governor twice, but lost in the primaries. She would have been the first governor I voted for if she had won her second primary, since she would have run in the first election I could vote in.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/24/obit.gandy.ap/index.html

"In a political career that spanned four decades, Gandy, a Democrat, was the first woman in Mississippi ever elected to the offices of state representative, state treasurer, insurance commissioner and lieutenant governor.

All but the state representative post involved statewide campaigns. But she fell short in two bids for the governorship, in 1979 and 1983, both times losing in a primary runoff for the Democratic nomination.

Former Gov. William Winter, who defeated Gandy in the 1979 runoff, said she was "one of Mississippi's most conscientious and able public leaders."

Referring to women running for public office, Gandy told the Hattiesburg American in 2002: "I can share in their victory and their defeat. I have felt both. We're not trying to be better than men, we're just trying to join them."