Mia Love, first Black Republican woman in Congress, honored at memorial service
Family and friends of former U.S. Rep. Mia Love gathered Monday in Salt Lake City to honor the life and legacy of the first Black Republican woman elected to Congress after she died of brain cancer last month at age 49.
The former lawmaker from Utah, a daughter of Haitian immigrants, had undergone treatment for an aggressive brain tumor called glioblastoma and received immunotherapy as part of a clinical trial. She died March 23 at her home in Saratoga Springs, Utah, weeks after her daughter announced she was no longer responding to treatment.
Hundreds of mourners entered her service from a walkway lined with American flags at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Institute of Religion on the University of Utah campus. Long tables displayed framed family photos and bouquets of red and white flowers.
Love served only two terms in Congress before suffering a razor-thin loss to Democrat Ben McAdams in the 2018 midterm elections as Democrats surged. Yet she left her mark on Utah바카라 게임 웹사이트s political scene and later leveraged her prominence into becoming a political commentator for CNN.
She was briefly considered a rising star in the GOP, but her power within the party fizzled out as President Donald Trump took hold. Love kept her distance from Trump and called him out in 2018 for vulgar comments he made about immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and some African nations.
Jason Love, her husband, drew laughter from the somber crowd at Monday's service when he told stories of his wife바카라 게임 웹사이트s 바카라 게임 웹사이트superpowers.바카라 게임 웹사이트
He described discovering her influence after he tried to return the many toasters the couple received as wedding gifts and failing because he didn't have receipts. His wife then entered the store and came out three minutes later with cash in hand.
바카라 게임 웹사이트I thought, 바카라 게임 웹사이트Wow, I have married a Jedi knight,바카라 게임 웹사이트바카라 게임 웹사이트 he said with a laugh.
Her motherhood, he said, was her greatest superpower.
바카라 게임 웹사이트She was an extraordinary mother, and she believed that the most important work she would do within her life was within the walls of her own home with her children,바카라 게임 웹사이트 Jason Love said. 바카라 게임 웹사이트She always made it a special place for each of them to feel loved and to begin to achieve their full potential.바카라 게임 웹사이트
A choir of Love바카라 게임 웹사이트s friends sang some of her favorite hymns, as well as Ed Sheeran's 바카라 게임 웹사이트Supermarket Flowers.바카라 게임 웹사이트 Her children, Alessa, Abigale and Peyton, read an their mother published in the Deseret 온라인 바카라 게임 shortly before she died in which she shared her enduring wish for the nation to become less divisive.
Love바카라 게임 웹사이트s sister Cyndi Brito shared childhood memories, including how Love used to rehearse all day and night for starring roles in her school plays. She was always the best at everything she did and made everyone around her feel important, her sister said.
Brito read an excerpt of a speech her third-grade daughter gave at a recent school assembly for Black History Month honoring Love's legacy.
바카라 게임 웹사이트'Mia Love played many roles and had many titles, but the most important role and the most important title that Mia Love played in my eyes was auntie,'바카라 게임 웹사이트 Brito recalled her daughter, Carly, telling classmates.
Love did not emphasize her race during her campaigns, but she acknowledged the significance of her election after her 2014 victory. She said her win defied naysayers who suggested a Black, Republican, Mormon woman could not win a congressional seat in overwhelmingly white Utah.
On Sunday evening, state leaders and members of the public visited the Utah Capitol to pay their respects at Love's flag-covered coffin behind ropes in the building's rotunda.
Love, born Ludmya Bourdeau, was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2022 and said her doctors estimated she had only 10 to 15 months to live, which she surpassed. With aggressive treatments, Love lived for nearly three years after receiving her diagnosis.
Her close friend, Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, told the audience Monday that Love had asked her friends and family to rally around her like a campaign team when she was diagnosed.
바카라 게임 웹사이트바카라 게임 웹사이트I바카라 게임 웹사이트m in fight mode,바카라 게임 웹사이트 she told us, 바카라 게임 웹사이트and what I need from you all, more than anything, is to help me fight it. This is a campaign, and we are going to win,바카라 게임 웹사이트바카라 게임 웹사이트 Henderson recalled.
Love entered politics in 2003 after winning a city council seat in Saratoga Springs, 30 miles south of Salt Lake City. She was elected as the city바카라 게임 웹사이트s mayor in 2009, becoming the first Black woman to serve as a mayor in Utah.
In 2012, after giving a rousing speech at the Republican National Convention, she narrowly lost a bid for the U.S. House against the Democratic incumbent. She ran again two years later and won.