Zandra Flemister, a pioneer who became the first Black woman in the Secret Service, has died at 71 years old. Image courtesy of the U.S. Secret Service/Twitter

Cheatle said Flemister would inspire generations of agents with the example she set in service of former U.S. presidents.

Flemister joined the service in 1974 and would stand at the side of presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and their families, according to The Guardian. While she protected the families of the Commander in Chief, she withstood harassment and racial discrimination within the agency.

The Secret Service was founded nearly a century before hiring Flemister and according to The Washington Post she was unaware of the barriers she had broken at that time.

She was the target of racism and a witness to racism toward others by her colleagues. According to her obituary in The Washington Post, Flemister was told she could not wear her hair in an afro if she wanted to climb the agency’s ranks. She would witness her fellow agents use racial slurs when talking about the presidents of Grenada and Senegal.

In 2006, Flemister was transferred to the Senior Foreign Service. Around the same time she was beginning to suffer symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease unbeknownst to her. Her husband John Collinge recalled what it was like watching his wife begin to struggle in her professional career due to losing her memory.

“Alzheimer’s is the master thief. First it stole her career, next her memory, then her personality. In time, it will kill her. She is 64,” Collinge wrote on the American Foreign Service Association website.

In 2010, Flemister retired at 59 years old.

Collinge told The Washington Post that Flemister died of respiratory failure related to Alzheimer’s disease. She and Collinge were married 42 years and she is also survived by their son Samuel Collinge.