Carol Nunnelley, a longtime reporter and editor for The Birmingham News, has died, leaving behind a legacy of love for journalism.

Nunnelley died on Dec. 3 after a long illness. She was 80, born on Christmas Day in 1942.

She joined the staff of The Birmingham News as a reporter in 1966, covered Birmingham City Hall, then became assistant city editor, city editor, assistant managing editor and managing editor, as a pioneering woman in Alabama journalism.

“She was at The News when it was a male-dominated situation,” said Tom Bailey, who was managing editor when she was assistant managing editor. “She worked so hard, and through that hard work was able to rise in the organization to the point where she was managing editor. Sometimes she’d run into stone walls, sometimes she’d be tilting at windmills. She stood up for what she thought was right no matter how unlikely it was for her to win the battle.”

Nunnelley was covering City Hall when Richard Arrington was elected Birmingham’s first Black mayor, and she frequently covered civil rights issues as a reporter and oversaw coverage as an editor.