Fredia Hurdle, who was among more than two-dozen people who successfully sued the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to secure marriage equality, died last week, after suffering a stroke Aug. 7. She was 50.
Hurdle and partner Lynn, who lived in Pittsburgh, were plaintiffs in Whitewood v. Wolf, filed last summer by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and a local firm.
The couple was together for 24 years. They were joined in a commitment ceremony five years ago and were holding off on legally tying the knot until after their daughter’s wedding this fall.
“I was looking for the next 25 or 50 years together,” Lynn told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “It’s been shell shock.”
The couple met when Lynn was a passenger on a Greyhound bus Hurdle was driving. Hurdle relocated from Washington, D.C., to Pittsburgh to be close to Lynn, and later worked as a driver for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The Hurdles raised Lynn’s daughter and, following the death of Hurdle’s sisters, her nieces and nephews. She is also survived by her father and three siblings.