Three-time Republican Secretary of State Natalie Meyer has died, according to a statement issued by the family. Memorial service details are pending. 

Meyer had been in declining health for several years; in December, 2019 she went missing for more than 12 hours in Jefferson County, near Southwest Plaza, prompting a missing person's alert. She was found alive and well the next day.

Meyers was the second woman to be elected secretary of state, serving the longest in history, from 1983 to 1995. In this era before term limits, Meyer chose not to run for a fourth term.

In her first race, she narrowly defeated Sam Zakhem in the primary and won in a landslide in the general election against Democrat Betty Orten, according to the Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph. 

She told the Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph in 1993, when she chose not to run for another term, that, "It's been wonderful. It's been real. And in 1995, I intend to leave this office for my successor in apple-pie shape as one of the most efficient, service-oriented offices in the state." Meyer modernized the secretary of state's office with computerization and offering electronic access to office records. 

The 1993 profile said her arch-nemesis was TABOR author and convicted tax felon Douglas Bruce. Meyer rejected four ballot measures submitted by Bruce, including two tax limitation measures and two others on election reform, all for failing to meet signature requirements. Bruce, who once called Meyer the "Secretary of Sleeze," finally succeeded in getting the TABOR proposal onto the 1992 ballot, where it was approved by voters, 53.68% to 46.32%.

She also served as the Colorado organizer for the election campaigns for President Ronald Reagan, in 1976, 1980 and 1984. She was an adviser to Sen. William Armstrong and recruited by the GOP to run for governor in 1986. She instead chose another term as Secretary of State. 

Reagan appointed Meyer to lead a U.S. Presidential delegation to the Philippines, overseeing an election to replace Ferdinand Marcos. After her service as Secretary of State, Meyer served as an election judge.

In 2017, Meyers was given the Medallion Award from the National Association of Secretaries of State, in recognition of her service to the mission of NASS. She was recommended for the award by then-Secretary of State Wayne Williams. 

Meyer was the appellant in a U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down Colorado's statute that made it a felony to pay petition circulators. In Meyer, Woodward v. Grant (Attorney General Duane Woodward was also an appellant), the Court held that the statute abridged appellees' right to engage in political speech and therefore violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The issue at hand was an attempt to put on the ballot a question regarding whether motor carriers should be subject to regulation by the Public Utilities Commission.

Meyer was born May 20, 1930 in Henderson, North Carolina. She raised three daughters, and prior to becoming a political party volunteer taught typing, bookkeeping, shorthand, history and English at Bear Valley and Wheat Ridge high schools.

She was married to Harold Meyer, former mayor of Littleton, for 55 years and until his death in 2006. She is survived by their three daughters, Rebecca Brown, Mary Strickler, and Amy Blain; and four grandchildren.

This story will be updated as memorial service details become available.