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WASHINGTON (AP) — Cassandra Butts, former deputy White House counsel and a classmate and friend of President Barack Obama, has died, her family and Obama said. She was 50.
Butts' family said in a statement that her sister found Butts dead Thursday in her Washington home. The statement said Butts had suffered from a brief illness.
Butts served as deputy counsel during Obama's first year in office. She left the next year to serve as a senior adviser to the Millennium Challenge Corp.
Obama nominated Butts in 2014 to be the U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas. Hers was one of several nominations that the Senate has failed to act on.
The president said in a statement Friday that Butts was someone who made him want to be better.
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