Pension rights activist dies at age 49

Lt. Laurel A. Hester, the terminally ill Ocean County (NJ) nvestigator whose battle to pass on her pension to her partner led to wider discussion and use of state domestic partnership laws, died of lung cancer Saturday morning.

The intensely private woman  worked for 24 years as an investigator with the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office.

She kept her sexual orientation private throughout her career, fearing retribution and saying it was no one's business but her own.

She only sought attention in the final three months of her life when she tried to get the Ocean County Board of Chosen Freeholders to award her pension to Stacie Andree, her long-time partner. Andree declined to comment Saturday when reached by telephone.

The board initially refused Hester's request, citing the $13,000 cost. It backed down in late January, less than a month before Hester's death.

Hester's case spurred debate about the state's two-year-old domestic partnership law, which allows, but doesn't require, local governments to provide benefits to employees' same-sex partners.

Read more at Press of Atlantic City.com.