Once-revered SC lawmaker freezes to death alone - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee: When Juanita Goggins became the first black woman elected to the South Carolina Legislature in 1974, she was hailed as a trailblazer and twice visited the president at the White House.Three decades later, she froze to death at age 75, a solitary figure living in a rented house four miles from the gleaming Statehouse dome.
Goggins, whose achievements included key legislation on school funding, kindergarten and class size, had become increasingly reclusive. She spent her final years turning down help from neighbors who knew little of her history-making past. Her body was not discovered for more than a week.
Those neighbors, as well as former colleagues and relatives, are now left wondering whether they could have done more to help.
