7 Madeleine Albright ‘Young’ Photos

The first female secretary of state in US history, has died aged 84. Check out Madeleine Albright young photos.

Her family released a statement confirming her death from cancer.

“She was surrounded by family and friends,” the statement said. “We lost a loving mother, grandmother, sister, aunt and friend”.

Former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, who later became Secretary of State, were among those who paid tribute to her after her death was announced.

“Few leaders have been so perfectly suited for the times in which they served,” the Clintons said. “Because she knew first-hand that America’s policy decisions had the power to make a difference in people’s lives around the world, she saw her jobs as both an obligation and an opportunity.”

Albright was born Marie Jana Korbelova in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in 1937, the daughter of a Czechoslovak ambassador who was forced into exile after his nation was occupied by Nazi Germany in 1939.

Her family applied for political asylum in the United States in 1948, claiming that they were unable to return home as opponents of their country’s communist rule. In 1957, she became a US citizen.

Albright went on to serve as a foreign policy adviser to a number of vice-presidential and presidential candidates after working at the White House during Jimmy Carter’s presidency.

Albright was nominated ambassador to the United Nations shortly after Bill Clinton was inaugurated in 1993, her first diplomatic assignment.