The first woman to become secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, born Marie Jana Korbelova, died of cancer on Wednesday.

She was 84-years-old at the time of her death.

Madeleine died surrounded by family and friends, her family said in a statement shared to Twitter.

The family said, “We have lost a loving mother, grandmother, sister, aunt and friend, a tireless champion of democracy and human rights.”

Albright was often hailed as a ‘champion of democracy,’ and served as America’s top diplomat during Bill Clinton’s presidency.

Born in Prague in 1937, Albright had fled with her family from war-torn Czechoslovakia to England just two weeks after Nazi Germany invaded.

At the time of her death she was a professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, chair of Albright Stonebridge Group, part of Denton’s Global Advisors, chair of Albright Capital Management, president of the Harry S Truman Scholarship Foundation, chair of the National Democratic Institute, chair of the US Defense Policy Board and an author, her family noted in a statement.