Pa. lieutenant governor dies from neuroendocrine cancer

Diagnosed in July, she publicly revealed her illness in August.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Catherine Baker Knoll, who at age 72 became the first woman to be elected as Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, died Wednesday. She was 78.

Knoll died at National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington, D.C., where she was recovering from treatment for cancer, Gov. Ed Rendell said in a statement.

“Today we mourn the passing of one of the strongest, most dedicated public servants in Pennsylvania’s history,” Rendell said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with Catherine’s family. She will be deeply missed.”

Knoll was diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer in July and began radiation and chemotherapy treatments before publicly revealing her illness in August. The Senate’s presiding officer, she returned for the start of the fall Senate schedule in September, but showed signs of fatigue. On Sept. 22, she announced she would heed the advice of doctors, family members and colleagues and take time off, missing her first Senate session in six years.

“Even as she fought cancer in recent months, she remained upbeat and dedicated to serving the commonwealth,” Rendell said. “Catherine was a very passionate and exuberant advocate for many worthy causes. Her passing is a tremendous loss for the many people whose lives she touched.”

A former schoolteacher and Democratic veteran, Knoll served two terms as state treasurer beginning in 1988. When she won re-election in 1992, the always optimistic Knoll received one of the largest vote totals ever for a statewide Democratic candidate.

“I happen to think that Pennsylvania is like a 10-speed bicycle,” Knoll said on the day she was sworn in as the state’s 45th lieutenant governor in 2003. “We have gears we haven’t even tried yet.”

As lieutenant governor, she held the gavel in the state Senate and chaired the state Board of Pardons and a local government advisory committee. Rendell also asked her to serve as chairwoman of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Council.

She was so committed to presiding over the Senate that, even cancer-stricken, she told Senate Minority Leader Robert J. Mellow, D-Lackawanna, in September that she felt badly about putting down the gavel, in case she was needed to cast a tie-breaking vote for the party.

Mellow described a determined woman who was passionate about being an elected official — she would go anywhere, any time to represent the state, he said — and serving the Catholic church.

“If there is a Heaven and Hell, then when she passed away she went straight to Heaven,” Mellow said.

Under the state Constitution, Knoll will be replaced by the Senate President Pro Tempore, Joseph B. Scarnati III, R-Jefferson, who plans to retain his Senate seat.