RIP: Governor Ruth Ann Minner
Delaware’s first and only female governor Ruth Ann Minner has died at the age of 86 after living a “truly remarkable story of triumph in the face of adversity,” according to multiple government officials.
Minner dropped out of high school at 16 to help out on her family farm. At 32, she was widowed suddenly and left to raise three sons on her own while working two jobs and finishing her GED.
She later remarried and built a family towing business with her second husband, who died of lung cancer in 1991.
Delaware Senate President Pro Tempore Dave Sokola, Majority Leader Bryan Townsend, and Majority Whip Elizabeth Lockman issued a lengthy statement on Minner’s death, citing her life story as a catalyst for the number of women in the Senate Democratic Caucus today.
“As governor,” they said, “she worked to reduce Delaware’s high cancer rates, helped to pass the then-controversial Clean Indoor Air Act to ban smoking in restaurants and bars, helped more than 13,000 Delawareans and counting earn a college degree by signing the SEED 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.”
She delivered the commencement address when I got my master’s.
She delivered the commencement address when I got my high school diploma.
She was a State Senator during much of my time in Dover.
She was a REALLY good state senator. Nixed a pension grab by some of her greedy colleagues only to be ostracized for having done so.
I remember the Halloweens she hosted at Woodburn for kids, she was a sweet woman. A hell of a trailblazer, and left some big shoes to fill for leaders who came after her.
“Work hard. Do the right thing. Leave the place better than you found it.”
That was her life motto. She lived it right up to her last day.
She muscled Tom Sharp into stopping his three-year blockade of an overdue strengthening of the State’s campaign finance laws, developed by Common Cause and passed in 1990.
she got pregnant at 16, hardly a great accomplishment
better Governor than Carper or Markell but that is no big deal
The younger you have kids, the better. You have the energy to keep up with them and are still young when they are grown.
She should’ve been a drug mule, like Lauren Witzke. Now, THAT’s an accomplishment.
I agree, only scumbags get pregnant at 16. Honestly, having sex before you turn 18 should be illegal.
(wtf is this comment??)
Ruth Ann Minner turned 16 in 1951. The Pill was not legal nationwide until 1965.
Not knowing that is hardly a great accomplishment.
I think raising a child at that age is a major accomplishment. Especially considering how accomplished that child turned out to be. But if you think it isn’t, you should do everything you can to protect women’s rights to safe, legal reproductive healthcare.
When my life exploded and i became a liability Ruth Ann stuck by me and supported my recovery. a great Governor and a better human. RIP
I was campaigning with her in my neighborhood in Wilmington. After we finished she came back to our house and sat on the back deck with myself and my wife just talking and drinking ice tea – you don’t see that from many politicians. A really nice person.