Madeleine Albright, the first woman to be U.S. secretary of state, has died, according to a statement from her family.

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

She served as secretary of state from 1997 to 2001 during the Clinton administration.

Hillary and I are profoundly saddened by the passing of Madeleine Albright.

Albright was born in what was then Czechoslovakia and fled with her family after the Nazis occupied the country in 1939.

Albright's father Josef was part of the Czechoslovak Foreign Service and became ambassador to Yugoslavia, according to a biography from the State Department's Office of the Historian.

President Biden commented on the challenges Albright faced as a young woman.

"Madeleine was always a force for goodness, grace, and decency—and for freedom."