Liberty County commissioners recently honored one of their former members who set a first not only for the county but for the state.

Chairman Donald Lovette said as county officials talked about local trailblazers, Hazel Carter’s name came up. Not only was she the first woman to serve as a Liberty County commissioner, she was also the first in the state to serve as a county commissioner.

“She was the first of several things she was involved in,” said her son Sanford Carter.

To commemorate the late Carter’s work, commissioners presented her family, including her daughter Mary Varnedoe and some of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, a framed copy of a Coastal Courier story on Hazel Carter that will hang in the Liberty County Courthouse Annex. Carter passed away in April 1988.

“There were more than I knew about,” Lovette said of her accomplishments.

The county’s senior citizens center also is named after her.