California’s first female Chinese-American Secretary of State dies at 95

Described as “California’s Henry Kissinger”, March Fong Eu, who served as California’s first female Secretary of State and later as U.S. ambassador to Micronesia, died at the age of 95 on December 21, 2017.

March Fong Eu, former California Secretary of State, is seated among some of her paintings at California State University in Sacramento, California, on November 28, 2000. [File Photo: AP/Rich Pedroncelli]

Longtime spokeswoman Caren Lagomarsino told media that Eu died in Irvine, California, from complications following a fall and subsequent surgery.

March Fong Eu was born on March 29, 1922 in the central California town of Oakdale. Her parents ran a hand laundry business. In spite of her impoverished upbringing, Eu went on to earn degrees from UC Berkeley, Mills College, and Stanford. Eu was a dental hygienist and educator who became interested in politics while serving as president of the American Dental Hygienists Association.

Eu was best known for her successful campaign to ban pay toilets in public buildings during late 1960s and early 1970s, arguing that urinals were often free, which she argued was discriminatory. Her work on the issue helped earn her support in her run to become Secretary of State.

California Secretary of State March Fong Eu displays the gun used by Sirhan Sirhan to assassinate Robert Kennedy in Los Angeles, during a news conference in Sacramento on April 19, 1988. [File Photo: AP/Walt Zeboski]

Eu served four terms as a Democratic state assemblywoman representing the Oakland area before becoming California's chief elections officer in 1975. She held that position until 1994 when President Bill Clinton named her ambassador to the Pacific nation of Micronesia.

California Secretary of State March Fong Eu (left), with first lady Betty Ford, checks the names of delegates pledged to President Gerald Ford in the California primary election, after putting her stamp of approval on them in her Sacramento office in California, May 5, 1976. [File Photo: AP]

Current governor of California Jerry Brown said on Friday that Eu was a pioneering woman who helped open doors to public service for more women and Asian Americans.