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Centenarian voter lauded by Obama dies

Ann Nixon Cooper, the Atlanta centenarian lauded by President Barack Obama in his election night speech last year, has died. She was 107.
/ Source: The Associated Press

Ann Nixon Cooper, the Atlanta centenarian lauded by President Barack Obama in his election night speech last year, has died. She was 107.

Obama in his 2008 speech called Cooper an example of "the heartbreak and the hope" of the past century. He noted she'd been born at a time when women and blacks couldn't vote and lived to cast her ballot for the country's first black president.

Carl M. Williams Funeral Directors of Atlanta, which is handling funeral arrangements, confirmed that Cooper died on Monday.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that she died in the home she'd lived in since 1938. She was hospitalized recently for circulatory trouble.

To watch the segment of Obama's Nov. 4 address referencing Cooper, click the video player below:

Video of the entire speech is available here, and the transcript is here. Cooper would have turned 108 on Jan. 9.