bell hooks, a groundbreaking author, educator and activist, has died at the age of 69. 

In a statement issued through William Morrow Publishers, hooks’ family announced that she died in Berea, Kentucky, on Wednesday. 

Her cause of death was not clear, however, close friend Dr. Linda Strong-Leek told The Associated Press that hooks had been ill for a long time.

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“She was a giant, no nonsense person who lived by her own rules, and spoke her own truth in a time when Black people, and women especially, did not feel empowered to do that.It was a privilege to know her, and the world is a lesser place today because she is gone. There will never be another bell hooks,” Dr. Strong-Leek said.

Who was bell hooks?

Born Gloria Jean Watkins in the segregated town of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, in 1952, she later gave herself the pen name bell hooks in honor of her maternal great-grandmother. She loved reading from an early age. Her early influences ranged from James Baldwin and fellow Kentucky author Wendell Berry to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

“Martin Luther King was my teacher for understanding the importance of beloved community. He had a profound awareness that the people involved in oppressive institutions will not change from the logics and practices of domination without engagement with those who are striving for a better way,” she said in an interview that ran in Appalachian Heritage in 2012.

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She majored in English at Stanford University and received a master’s in English from the University of Wisconsin. Her notable works included “Ain’t I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism,” “Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center” and “All About Love: New Visions.” She also wrote poetry and children’s stories and appeared in such documentaries as “Black Is … Black Ain’t” and “Hillbilly.”

With inputs from The Associated Press