Friends, family, former colleagues, and local leaders celebrated what would have been former Gov. Ella Grasso’s 100th birthday Friday, paying tribute to the first woman in the country elected to the position without having been the wife of a former governor.

Before being elected governor in 1974, Grasso served as a state representative from Windsor Locks from 1953 to 1959, Connecticut’s secretary of the state from 1959 to 1971, and a U.S. congresswoman from 1971 until taking office as governor. Grasso, who died of cancer in 1981 not long after resigning from her post due to poor health, is a local icon in Windsor Locks, her hometown.