Peatsy Hollings, wife of longtime US Sen. Fritz Hollings, has died, the (Charleston) Post and Courier has reported.

Rita Louise "Peatsy" Hollings was 77 when she died Sunday night. She suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, the newspaper reported.

Fritz Hollings’ wife kept the senator, now 90, grounded and often served as his advisor, but her love sustained him and kept his ego in check during their 41-year marriage. As he often joked, the two were " in love with the same man - Fritz Hollings."

"She was a real life partner in every sense of the word," Jean Toal, a friend of Peatsy Hollings and the chief justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court, said in a 2005 profile in The State. "She had such an instinctive sense of where Hollings was going on issues. She gave him the most objective and reliable advice he got."

Read more in Monday’s State newspaper and here on thestate.com.

From staff reports