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COLUMBIA When Juanita Goggins became the first black woman elected to the S.C. legislature in 1974, she was hailed as a trailblazer and twice visited the president at the White House.
Three decades later, she froze to death at age 75, a solitary figure living in a rented house four miles from the gleaming State House dome.
Goggins, a lawmaker from Rock Hill whose achievements included key legislation on school funding, kindergarten and class size, had become increasingly reclusive.
She spent her final years in Columbia turning down help from neighbors who knew little of her history-making past or that part of a state highway - S.C. 5 in York County - is named in her honor.
Goggins' body was not discovered for more than a week. Neighbors, as well as former colleagues and relatives, now wonder whether they could have done more to help.
"I'm very saddened. People like her you want to see live forever. She had quite a gift for helping others," said state Sen. John Land, a fellow Democrat who was first elected to the House the same year as Goggins.
Goggins, the youngest of 10 children, grew up the daughter of a sharecropper in rural Anderson County, about 100 miles northwest of the capital. She was the only sibling to earn a four-year college degree. Her bachelor's in home economics from then-all-black S.C. State College was followed by a master's degree.
In 1957, she moved to York County to teach home economics, married a dentist and got into politics.
In 1972, she became the first black woman to represent South Carolina as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. Two years later, she became the first black woman appointed to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.
In 1974, Goggins, a Democrat, was elected to represent the Rock Hill-centered House District 49 after court rulings forced changes in the makeup of State House districts.
"I am going to Columbia to be a legislator, not just a black spot in the House chambers," she said at the time.
She sat on the powerful House budget-writing committee and was responsible for funding sickle-cell anemia testing in county health departments.
In her three terms, Goggins also helped pass the 1977 law that is still the basis for education funding in the state. Her proposals to expand kindergarten and to reduce student-teacher ratios in the primary grades were adopted after she left politics.
Her former husband, Dr. Horace Goggins Sr. of Rock Hill, said his wife was diagnosed with mental illness in the late 1970s, prompting her to give up her legislative seat in 1980 as she was receiving treatment.
"That was the reason she had to give up her seat," he told the (Rock Hill) Herald. "That doesn't change what she did as a legislator, what she did for people. She cared for people and was a fine, fine person."
The couple divorced in 1982, Dr. Goggins said, yet they remained as close as his wife's illness would allow.
In the early 1990s, she moved to Columbia, renting the brick ranch house in a quiet neighborhood off North Main Street where she lived for 16 years.
"I tried to communicate with her, to get her to take her medicine, and I went down there to Columbia many times," her former husband said. "She wouldn't accept contact from anybody."
Neighbors said she was always a private person. One neighbor said she would return her waves, but refused to let visitors in the door.
Last year - about the same time the legislature voted to name part of S.C. 5 "Juanita Goggins Highway"- Goggins was mugged near her home. She changed the locks on her door and stopped taking walks, according her neighbors and landlord.
Police found her body March 3 - two weeks after she was last seen. Her landlord contacted police after a neighbor realized he had not seen her lights on in some time.
Coroner Gary Watts said she died of hypothermia, probably about Feb. 20. When she died, during a cold snap, Goggins was wearing several layers of clothing, yet her heat was working at the time.
She had money to pay her bills, but the utility company said it shut off the electricity for nonpayment Feb. 23. Watts said it appeared Goggins was using Sterno to cook, but her stove was still functioning when police climbed through a window and found her.
"I miss her," said Erskine Hunter, an 83-year-old neighbor who ensured Goggins' lawn was mowed and hedges were trimmed. "I don't know why I didn't go over there and hammer on the door."
Hunter said Goggins occasionally came to his home and visited with his granddaughter. She refused rides to and from the bus stop, so he often went to the grocery store for her. But he had not done that in several months.
Her only child, Horace Goggins Jr., last saw his mother six months ago. She would not let him help her either, he said.
He wants to focus on her accomplishments and the good times at his mother's funeral Friday at New Covenant Missionary Baptist Church in Rock Hill.
"I would like for her to be remembered as a woman who cared about her community," he said.
"I want her to be remembered as a positive role model, not only for African-American girls, but also any young girl who has a want and a desire to make a change."
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