Georgia radio host and state school board member Martha Zoller died Monday, House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, said in a speech on the House floor.

“We lost a great Georgian today: Someone who was a great conservative, but she was also a friend to all Georgians,” Burns said Monday afternoon during the Legislature’s special session.

Burns said she had suffered from heart conditions.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported last week that Zoller was leaving her daily talk show on Gainesville news/talk station 102.9/550 WDUN on June 26 due to what she described as a “stress-related heart attack.”

Zoller appeared on various national broadcasts and also made a name in politics, running for Congress in 2012.

She lost the Republican primary runoff for U.S. House that year to Doug Collins in northeast Georgia, a seat now held by Rep. Andrew Clyde, also a Republican.

In 2019, Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, appointed Zoller to a three-year term on the State Board of Nursing Home Administrators. The next year, Kemp appointed Zoller to the state Board of Education, a position she still held Monday.

She earned respect across party lines.

“Martha was a respected stalwart of Georgia’s civic community, an accomplished broadcaster, and a formidable activist,” U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff said in a statement Monday.

Burns said Zoller was a direct but kind, straightforward and trustworthy interviewer on her radio show. 

“Georgia has lost a leader in the communications business and the business of life,” he said.

Capitol Beat is a nonprofit news service operated by the Georgia Press Educational Foundation that provides coverage of state government to newspapers throughout Georgia. For more information visit capitol-beat.org.