Former State Representative Sylvia Laughter died on Saturday at 63.
Laughter was from Kayenta and was the first Navajo woman to serve in the State Legislature from District 2, which covers Northern Arizona and parts of the Navajo Nation.
Laughter served three terms from 1999 to 2005.
She was instrumental in creating the House Committee on Native American Affairs, which she co-chaired.
She also sponsored the bill to create the Navajo Nation license plate in Arizona and was the founder of the Navajo Code Talker Memorial Foundation. She completed the two Navajo Code Talker Memorials at the Navajo Nation Capitol in Window Rock and the Arizona State Capitol.
A GoFundMe page created by her family says Laughter “lost her bout with COVID after 10 months of battling it.”