The wife of former US Senator Jim Jeffords has died

God bless her :cry: She was a wonderful human being. Prayers for Mr. Jeffords and his family in this difficult time.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2007/04/13/liz_jeffords_liberal_wife_of_former_senator_dies_at_68">Liz Jeffords, liberal wife of former senator, dies at 68

Elizabeth "Liz" Daley Jeffords, the wife of former U.S. Sen. James Jeffords, died Friday. She was 68.

Jeffords, who twice married Jeffords, suffered a reccurence of ovarian cancer and died at the couple's Shrewsbury home, her family at her side, according to former Jeffords spokeswoman Diane Derby.

As an unabashed liberal married to a longtime Republican, Mrs. Jeffords often chafed during her husband's long career in politics, even though he was widely recognized as a maverick willing to buck his party's leaders. In 2001, Jeffords quit the Republican Party and became an independent, briefly giving control of the Senate to Democrats.

"I believe in civil unions. I am pro-choice. I am anti-missile defense," Mrs. Jeffords told the Rutland Herald after that.

"I did find it harder and harder to be in Republican settings where all of the things I believed in were discounted or made to seem evil. I had to sit on my tongue. I have been saying, 'Don't embarrass your husband.' So I'm relieved greatly I'm not put in that awkward position."

is one of the last remnants of the once-moderate wing of the Republican Party.

He was done dirty by the Bush White House, prompting the switch to Independent/caucus with the Dems.

The Bush people could not abide Jeffords' principled independence and sought to undermine him. He left the party because of it.

"When Jeffords moved on to the Senate three years later, Mrs. Jeffords continued making her own way. She often stayed in Vermont while her husband was in Washington, and was happy to make her own political statements, putting a Howard Dean for president sign in their front yard in 2004."

you were quite a woman - you will be remembered.

:-(