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Rell, who served as the state's 87th governor from 2004 to 2011, died on Wednesday, Nov. 20 at the age of 78 at a hospital in Florida following a short illness, CBS News reported.
Rell took office following the resignation of her predecessor, John G. Rowland, who pleaded guilty to corruption charges in 2004. She is the most recent Republican to serve as Connecticut's governor and spent her two terms expanding healthcare and childcare, strengthening ethics laws, and bringing the state back to normalcy after Rowland's criminal indictment.
In an interview in 2010, Rell said one of her major accomplishments as governor was her efforts to "restore honor to the state of Connecticut," CBS reported. She explained in the same interview:
"Our state had been through so much. And what we really needed to do, what we needed at the time, was to move on, to once again make our residents proud of our state government," she said, according to CBS News.
The news of Rell's death prompted an outpouring of tributes from Connecticut officials, including current Gov. Ned Lamont:
"She became governor almost reluctantly and at a time of great turmoil, and she used her newly acquired authority to bring stability to state government in a way that was very much needed at the time, focusing on strengthening state ethics laws and rebuilding the trust of the residents of our state," Lamont said in a statement on Thursday, Nov. 21.
He continued: "The Jodi Rell that the people of Connecticut saw in public was the Jodi Rell that she was in real life — calm, rational, caring, approachable, and devoted to her family and to her state."
The Connecticut Senate Republican Caucus also put out a statement, saying that Rell served the state "with dignity and grace."
"As our 87th Governor, she had an incredible connection with Connecticut residents that helped her lead us through some very difficult days. She was the genuine article," the Caucus added, also writing, "She emphasized transparency in government. She was a leader and a role model for all our citizens."
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong also memorialized Rell, calling her a "model of grace and stability."
"Her brand of thoughtful politics and leadership is sorely missed, and my hope is that elected leaders here and across the country will do better to follow her lead and example," Tong said.
Before her tenure as governor, Rell served as lieutenant governor from 1995 to 2004 under Rowland and represented the state's 107th district in the Connecticut House from 1985 to 1995.
Her husband, Lou, died of cancer in 2014. The couple had lived in the Fairfield County town of Brookfield before moving to Florida.
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