Washington, D.C. is mourning the death of Concepcion ‘Connie’ Picciotto, a legendary peace activist camped outside the White House since 1981. She died after manning a peace vigil for three-and-a-half decades, suffering the worst of both weather and humanity, all in an attempt to “stop the world from being destroyed.”

Connie arrived to New York in 1960 after being orphaned in Spain where she worked as a receptionist for a Spanish government commercial attache. A few years later she married an Italian immigrant and they adopted young Olga in 1973. The relationship soured when she found her husband guilty of criminal dealings. To undermine her accusations he had her sent to a mental institution, and following this, she lost her daughter in a custody battle.

Connie then tried to save the world through anti-nuclear White House vigils. For 25 years she camped outside the White House with William Thomas, another activist, who passed away in 2009. Despite his death, she kept the vigil alive as the longest peace protest in the history of the United States and possibly the world.

Her attire was just as peculiar as her actions. For three and a half years she wore a helmet underneath her headscarf and she played a cat-and-mouse game with the United States Park Police that prohibits demonstrators from sleeping on its property.

Nonetheless she remained firm to her cause through blizzards, heat waves and all manner of problems.