Patricia Murphy Derian was a civil rights and human rights activist in Mississippi. Patricia M. Derian was the wife of Hodding Carter III an American journalist and politician.
The former couple were married from 1978 until her death. She died in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on May 20, 2016, after suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
Patricia Derian served as Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs from 1977 to 1981.
The Times of London described her as “a courageous champion of civil rights who took on some of the world’s most brutal dictators in her role as a senior American diplomat.”
Hodding Carter III died on May 11, 2023, at the age of 88, at a retirement home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, from a series of strokes.
Catherine Carter Sullivan, his daughter, confirmed his death on Thursday, May 11 2023, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Hodding Carter III served as a spokesman for the US State Department during the Iran hostage crisis and later won awards for his televised documentaries.