 The city of Jenkins lost a pair of noteworthy natives over the weekend, one of whom just happens to be the first female underground coal miner in the United States. Diana Baldwin was Beth Helcorn Coal Company's first female underground coal miner and was also the country's first female underground miner. She died Saturday from complications from a long battle with Lupus. She started her mining career in the 1970s at Beth Helcorn's Mine 29 and worked nearly two decades underground. The artifacts of Diana Baldwin's mining career are on display at the David Zagir Cohen Railroad Museum in Jenkins. She was proud of herself but she didn't brag and boast about it. It was mostly me and Scott Mark that told everybody, well that's the first lady coal miner and she was a hard worker determined. She would talk about going in on the shuttle cart, how dark it was, damp, wet. She would talk about it in some minds because she worked in different minds around here. I can remember 29 and mine 25 there would be times she would talk about going in and having to crawl around on her hands and knees. Very difficult time for it being the first woman coal miner. I can remember when my uncles would have to take her to work because she was getting threats and threats of being tarred in the mines but that did not deter mom from going to work. She was determined. She had three kids to support me, Scott and Mark and that's exactly what she did. She kept on. But she eventually earned the respect of her fellow miners and worked her way up to a position as a federal mine inspector. They accepted her eventually. It was a rough start but I mean she was strong-willed, she was determined and she climbed up the ladder in the coal mines. Diana's death came the same day as another notable Jenkins native, her mother Leela Baldwin, an employee of 45 years of the former Jenkins community hospital. Diana died in South Carolina at 12.05 p.m. Saturday. Leela died just three minutes later in Letcher County. She enjoyed working over there. She enjoyed helping others, giving kind words to people's family if they were during times of sickness. Leela Baldwin was laid to rest Tuesday afternoon and Diana Baldwin will be laid to rest at a later date. Reporting in Jenkins for EKB News, I'm Chris Anderson.