Montserrado County’s district #9 Representative, Munah E. Pelham-Youngblood, who has been sick for a long period of time, has succumbed to the cold hands of death. The sad event occurred in Accra, Ghana, during the afternoon hours of Wednesday, July 8, 2020.
Representative Pelham-Youngblood battled a series of illness during her last years, and sought medication in Ghana, India, USA and other parts of the world.
She was noted for her fearless intellectual engagement and legislative floor-battling. She was a member of the 53rd and 54th House of Representatives, and last served the House as Chairman on Executive.
News about her death had permeated the Liberian society many times before her actual death. Many times she would make rebuttals about the scaring news and encourage the people to remember her in their prayers.
Representative Pelham-Youngblood was elected at 27 years as the youngest politician in Liberia’s history, defeating 20 other candidates. She was selected as one of the fifty most Eminent Liberian Women, one of Liberia’s most influential voices and Legislator of the Year 2012 and 2015. She was honored in 2013 by Nobel Peace Laureate Leymah Gbowee as Ambassador for Humanity.
She was an influential member of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), and won her first representative election in 2011. She was reelected in 2017 for another six-year term. However, a few months after her election, Munah got sick. Since then, she has been in and out of the country seeking medication. She leaves to mourn her daughter and husband.