Former state Rep. Betty Hutchinson Wiser, recently died while on vacation in the Bahamas. She was 78.
Wiser represented Wake County from 1985-1990, where she was noted as an expert on aging, Rob Christensen reports. She sponsored legislation to expand benefits for poor children and pregnant women.
She was defeated in the 1990 Democratic primary, after she joined with a group dissident Democrats and Republicans headed by Rep. Joe Mavretic to oust powerful House Speaker Liston Ramsey in 1989.
Wiser was long active in community affairs, serving as executive director of the Wake County Council on Aging, and president the N.C. League of Women Voters. At the time of her death, she was serving as co-chair of the Osteoporosis Prevention Task Force.
She was buried March 1 in Ohio.
Comments
Brave and tough Legislator
March 7, 2010 - 12:22pm — kttechwriterSorry that she died on vacation. What an awful way to go.
Those tough Dems that joined with Mavretic and voted out Liston Ramsey did a brave and grand thing and she'll always be a hero in my heart. For those of you too young to remember, those were heady times. Thanks Rob, for noting her role in NC political history.
I hope Rep. Betty rests forever in peace.