Family, friends and public officials gathered to celebrate the life and honor the death of Ida Ballasiotes on Monday afternoon at the Island’s Holy Trinity Lutheran Church.

Ballasiotes, a former five-term state representative, died on Nov. 23 at age 78 at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle. She got involved in citizen activism and then the state legislature after the murder of her daughter, Diane, in 1988.

She turned the grief about her daughter’s death into action, championing crackdowns on sex offenders and the “three strikes” initiative after being elected in 1992. She earned a reputation for being “tough on crime,” but the picture painted of her at the memorial was in softer strokes, as people spoke about her sense of humor, kindness and intelligence.

Speakers at the memorial quoted Ballasiotes when she said, “it’s been said that the great end in life is not knowledge, but action. And I believe that you make a difference by being willing to act. When you see that something is wrong, not just in your eyes, but in the eyes of many, go after it, and make it better.”

Her son Michael Ballasiotes told a story of when he broke his leg, and how his mother told the person carrying him into the house to ‘put him down, he can walk.’” Similar recollections of her independence, self-sufficiency and no-nonsense attitude were shared, with family members and colleagues remembering her common sense, and how she used it to solve problems — not just at home, but across the entire state of Washington.

State Sen. Jeri Costa recalled how she and Ballasiotes worked across party lines to advocate for victims of sexual assault and other violent crimes.

“Ida was an incredible person who made a huge difference in peoples’ lives, and we are all so blessed to have known her,” Costa said.

Ed Murray, mayor of Seattle, also attended the memorial and spoke about Ballasiotes’s wit and composure. Murray said he got to know her when he went to the legislature in 1996, and that she welcomed him warmly to Olympia.

“I wanted to get to know Ida because she had class, and she had style, and I wanted to know who she was,” Murray said. “The issue that she worked on most was painful … but she did it without being self-righteous, with restraint and with an incredible sense of fairness.”

Murray said that Christmas is the season of light, and “though we have lost Ida, we have not lost her light.”

Ballasiotes is survived by her husband Andrew, her son and daughter-in-law Michael and Mary Kay, her daughter and son-in-law Stephanie and David, and six grandchildren.