Faith Whittlesey, a former Delaware County politician and aide to Ronald Reagan, has died at the age of 79, writes Sam Roberts for The New York Times.

According to her son, William Whittlesey, the cause of death was liver cancer.

Whittlesey, who at the time was the highest-ranking woman on President Reagan’s White House staff, helped lay the foundation for the religious right’s allegiance to the Republican Party.

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She started her political career as a Kennedy Democrat before being elected to the Pennsylvania Legislature as a Delaware County Republican. Three years later, she was elected to the Delaware County Board of Commissioners, now Delaware County Council, where she served alternately as Chairman and Vice Chairman.

During her time in Delaware County government, Whittlesey also took her first private sector job at the law firm Wolf, Block, Schorr & Solis-Cohen in Philadelphia.

She left her elected position in the Delaware County in 1981 to become the nation’s Ambassador to Switzerland.

Read more about Faith Whittlesey in The New York Times by clicking here.

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