The Yukon lost its greatest champion of women's rights Saturday with the passing of Joyce Hayden. She was 77.

While Hayden served in the legislative assembly for one term as a New Democrat under the 1989-92 government of Tony Penikett, her achievements for the women's movement in the territory went well beyond the halls of territorial politics.

"She leaves an enormous, enormous legacy for women," said Charlotte Hrenchuk of the Yukon Status of Women's Council, an organization Hayden brought to fruition in the early '70s.

"All the work for women's equality in the Yukon came from a small group of women (which Hayden led). She was tremendous, and provided continuity to the women's movement in the Yukon ... we're losing a great pioneer for women's equality."

To witness her contribution, one need look no further than Whitehorse Transit, which evolved from the Yukon Women's Mini-Bus Society that Hayden spearheaded in 1975.

Without a transit system in the Yukon capital, women were often stranded at home as their husbands used the family car to commute.

"The idea when we proposed it was, in those days, which was many years ago, for women with children who didn't have access to vehicles," recalled Dale Stokes, a friend of Hayden's and colleague in the women's movement.

"Getting it going was quite a feat actually, but Whitehorse residents have Joyce to thank (for their bus system)."

Marian Horne, the minister responsible for the Women's Directorate, fondly remembers how the mini-bus service often provided door-to-door service and was instrumental in providing women more personal freedom.

"Many former society members in Whitehorse can attest to Joyce's pluck, dedication to the cause and perseverance as the reasons why the mini-bus service became a reality," Horne said at a ceremony honouring the achievement in October 2008.

"A freelance writer and researcher by profession and a historian, feminist and community activist by choice," is how Carcross Community School's website, dedicated to documenting the lives of prominent Yukoners, describes Hayden.

Born in Birch Lake, Sask. in 1931, Hayden moved to the Yukon in 1953 with her husband, Earle. Here, they raised three children.

Through her activism, volunteerism and numerous contributions to the territory, Hayden earned the Canadian Volunteer Award, the Yukon Commissioner's Award, the Rotary International Paul Harris Fellowship Award and was inducted into the Yukon's Transportation Hall of Fame.

On Oct. 18, 2003, Hayden was honoured with the Governor General's award in commemoration of the Persons Case - a landmark 1929 legal victory for women in which the judicial committee of England's Privy Council (then the highest court in Canada) ruled "persons" in the British North America Act includes members of both sexes, not just men.

Previous interpretations of the term "persons" had been used to deny women from sitting in the Senate, and, in the case of Emily Murphy, who launched the original challenge, from becoming the first female police magistrate in Alberta in 1916.

In Hayden's own right, she was involved in politics as a member, party executive and campaign manager for the NDP, both in B.C. and the Yukon.

She successfully ran in the 1989 territorial election, and, in mid-term, was named to the cabinet by Penikett.

She remained there until retiring from politics in 1992. While in office, Hayden presided over the Health and Social Services and Yukon Housing Corp. portfolios, and did not let the fact she was legally blind get in the way of her political determination or her ministerial duties.

Doug Phillips, a Yukon Party member who sat opposite Hayden in the legislature, fondly remembers his dealings with her.

"Sometimes the tone in the legislature can be mean and nasty, but Joyce was never like that," he told the Star.

"Despite our political differences, you could sit and talk with her. She just wanted to get things done and was more interested in the issues you had, your suggestions to deal with them and that was always refreshing."

Phillips called Hayden's passing "a sad day," and described his political rival as "a caring, compassionate person" who was "ahead of her time."

"I'm just pleased to have worked with her," added Phillips. "She had a great sense of humour, and we had some laughs in the legislature."

Margaret Commodore, a cabinet colleague of Hayden's during the later Penikett years, was a longtime friend of the late feminist dynamo.

"I've just got nothing but praise for her for whatever she's done, and I've always admired her," Commodore told the Star Tuesday from her home in Chilliwack, B.C.

"It's hard to look back at all of those years and decide it there was one moment that springs out all of a sudden ... I do remember her strength, she had that and was very consistent with what she believed in. You tend to learn from people like that and she definitely had that quality about her."

Hayden is survived by Earle, three children and their spouses, Sandra and Darrell Merriman, Pat Burke and Dan Gresley-Jones, and Terry and Pat Hayden; as well as eight grandchildren and two great grandchildren.