Catherine Baker Knoll Dies

Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor Catherine Baker Knoll has died at the age of 78. Knoll had been fighting neuroendocrine cancer for months. Governor Ed Rendell says at the time of her death Knoll was surrounded by her family at National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington, D.C. Under the Pennsylvania Constitution, Knoll will be replaced as Lieutenant Governor by the Senate President Pro Tempore, Joseph B. Scarnati III (R-Jefferson). Knoll was the first female lieutenant governor. Before that she served two terms as State Treasurer where she is said to have been proud of her creation of the TAP 529 Pennsylvania Tuition Account Program, which has since been renamed 'nowU.' She also ran an unsuccessful campaign in the 1994 democratic gubernatorial primary. The daughter of a McKees Rocks baker Knoll began her career in politics working for the party at various levels while also working as a schoolteacher.
Knoll's late husband, Charles, was a U.S. Postmaster. She is survived by her four adult children, Charles, Mina, Albert, and Kim Eric.
Funeral arrangements are incomplete.