Driven by “political vitriol,” an 82-year-old Texas woman decided it was about time to let her voice be heard by voting early on Thursday, only to die four days later.
Gracie Lou Phillips had never voted in her life before that day, when her granddaughters took her to an early polling station in Grand Prairie.
“She’s a wonderful woman,” Leslie Rene Moore said of her grandmother to local NBC News. “Proud American. Proud woman.”
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Phillips’ family explained to the news station the grandmother’s “priority through life was her family” and that family life and “misconceptions about voting” kept the woman from voting.
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“She finally registered to vote for the first time in her life,” granddaughter Michelle Phillips told NBC. “She kept telling everybody ‘I’m voting. I’m going to vote this year and my vote counts.’”
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Despite battling pneumonia and moving into hospice care, Phillips was going to vote.
“To have someone literally need oxygen to breathe, pure tank of oxygen to breathe, put it in her car and ask to go on what may very well be the last week of her life, that shows the dedication and priority that people need to look at,” Michelle Phillips said.
The Phillips family confirmed to the news station the proud voter had died early Monday, surrounded by her family.
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