Jane Elizabeth Lareau

Well-known environmental activist Jane Elizabeth Lareau died peacefully in her sleep at her Mt. Pleasant home on Monday night after a long battle with cancer.

Lareau was among the first staffers at the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League when it began more than 20 years ago.

She was a great friend. She was an essential part of the Conservation League, said Dana Beach, league founder. He described Lareau as passionate, fearless and relentless in her defense of nature. She gave others the courage to stand up for the environment, he said.

Before her work as a conservationist, Lareau was a journalist for The Columbia Record, The State and The News and Courier. She was head of the public relations department at the College of Charleston, worked in media relations at the Medical University of South Carolina and served as press secretary for Congressman Arthur Ravenel Jr.

She held leadership positions in the Sierra Club and Audubon Society and was a recipient of the Harriet Keyserling Conservation Advocacy Award.

In an interview with The Post and Courier in 2009, Laureau cited saving Sandy Island and preventing large-scale hog farms in South Carolina as conservation accomplishments of which she was proud. The island is now permanently protected by the Nature Conservancy.