Byrd and members of their family were with her when she died. She was 88 and had been ill for about five years, members of Byrd's office explained when they announced her death.

"I wish that more people could know the joy I have had in finding one's soulmate early in life and then sharing that deep companionship over many happy years," Byrd said.

The couple started their married life in Sophia, Raleigh County. Although Mrs. Byrd traveled around the world and met many famous people through her husband's work, she remained an unpretentious woman. She did not give any interviews until 1982. She noted in that interview that life as a senator's wife was often hard. "The husbands are very busy and away from home, and you have to build your day around that. I don't go to many social functions like some others try to do. We enjoy a quiet evening at home."

She was the daughter of Fred James, a coal miner, who died young. Byrd met his future wife through her father, who was one of the people that taught Byrd how to play the fiddle.

Erma appeared with her husband when he played the fiddle on "Hee Haw." Ironically, another "Hee Haw" star, Buck Owens, also died Saturday.

In May 1937, the Byrds were married in the home of a Baptist minister. The Byrds are members of the Crab Orchard Baptist Church in Raleigh County where they were baptized in the summer of 1944.

In 1948, the Byrds opened a grocery store that she ran after her husband was elected to the West Virginia Legislature.

In 1950, when the Byrds bought their first car, Erma taught her husband how to drive.

She was the mother of two daughters, the grandmother of six, and the great-grandmother of six. One of her grandchildren, Jon Michael Moore, died. The family is asking that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Jon Michael Moore Trauma Center at West Virginia University.

She received many honors. Members of the West Virginia Society of Washington, D.C., chose her as "West Virginia Daughter of the Year" in 1990, and she was named "West Virginia's Mother of the Year" in 1999.

The Erma Byrd Gallery at the University of Charleston is named for her, as well as scholarships like the Erma Byrd Scholarships at Marshall University.

Her death brought many statements of condolence, including one by U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller who has known the Byrds for decades.

"I am deeply saddened by the passing of Erma Byrd this evening," Rockefeller said Saturday. "For nearly 69 years, Erma stood by her husband's side. She was an ever present and constant source of support for Senator Byrd in public and in private. Never a day went by that she didn't share in his joy and honor to serve the great people of West Virginia.

"Erma truly was God's gift to Senator Byrd, and now she will keep watch over him from heaven.

"Sharon and I, and our entire family, mourn Erma's passing, and we join all West Virginians in praying for the Byrd family."

When the Byrds celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary, Byrd said of his wife, "Erma and I are complete and whole, a total that is more than the sum of its parts. In my life, Erma Ora Byrd is the diamond. She is a priceless treasure, a multifaceted woman of great insight and wisdom, of quiet humor and common sense."