LITTLE ROCK, Ark- The loss of Little Rock Nine member Thelma Mothershed-Wair is a major one in the capital city. She was 83 years old, and people in the community remember vividly the start of the Little Rock Nine’s journey to de-segregating Central High School.

Thelma Mothershed Wair, one of the nine Black students who integrated a high school in Arkansas' capital city of Little Rock in 1957 while a mob of white segregationists yelled threats and insults, has died at age 83.

FILE - Thelma Mothershed Wair seated on the bench that bears her name at Little Rock Central High School's 49th anniversary celebration of its integration on Sept. 25, 2006 as they dedicated memorial benches around the reflecting pool that carry the names of the nine black students. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/STEVE KEESEE)

Mothershed Wair was one of nine Black students who integrated a high school in Arkansas in 1957 while a mob of white segregationists yelled threats and insults.

Mothershed Wair died Saturday at a hospital in Little Rock after having complications from multiple sclerosis, her sister, Grace Davis, confirmed Sunday to The. The students who integrated Central High School were known as the Little Rock Nine.

For three weeks in September 1957, Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block the Black students from enrolling in Central High, three years after the U.S. Supreme Court declared segr