Former President Barack Obama on Sunday paid tribute to Alabama’s Lilly Ledbetter following her death Saturday.

The nation’s 44th president released a statement on the social platform X.

The two shared a personal connection, as the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was the first bill Obama signed into law after taking office in 2009.

“Lilly Ledbetter never set out to be a trailblazer or a household name,” Obama stated.

“She just wanted to be paid the same as a man for her hard work. But this grandmother from Alabama kept on fighting until the day I signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law – my first as president.

“Lilly did what so many Americans before her have done: setting her sights high for herself and even higher for her children and grandchildren. Michelle and I are grateful for her advocacy and her friendship, and we send our love and prayers to her family and everyone who is continuing the fight that she began.”

According to her family, the 86-year-old Ledbetter died of respiratory failure.

Others joined Obama in offering tribute to Ledbetter:

Ledbetter sued Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. came after working more than 19 years at the company’s Gadsden plant.

Ledbetter’s action came, she said, after an anonymous note informed her that she was making as much as $2,000 a month less than men in the same job. A jury later awarded Ledbetter $3.3 million in damages, but that was later struck down.

In 2007, Ledbetter’s case reached the Supreme Court, which, in a 5-4 decision, agreed with the appeals court that she had not met the 180-day deadline for filing her claim.

“Over the course of her career, she lost more than $200,000 in salary, and even more in pension and Social Security benefits,” Obama said at the signing of the bill in 2009.

“Lilly could have accepted her lot and moved on. She could have decided that it wasn’t worth the hassle and harassment that would inevitably come with speaking up for what she deserved.

“But instead, she decided that there was a principle at stake, something worth fighting for. So she set out on a journey that would take more than ten years, take her all the way to the Supreme Court, and lead to this bill which will help others get the justice she was denied,” Obama said.