Dianne Feinstein’s historic career began in tragedy and ended in controversy

She became San Francisco mayor after an assassination but her last days in the Senate brought questions about age and infirmity

Dianne Feinstein was the oldest serving senator, and the longest-serving woman in the Senate at time of her death on Friday. At 90, she was a tenacious trailblazer, and a stalwart centrist - with a sweeping political career that arcs across immense transformations in Washington DC but also in her home state of California.

It was a hard-won career that almost never was. In the late 70s, before she was senator, before she became San Francisco mayor, Feinstein's political ambitions had stagnated. After serving nine years on the board of supervisors, she had lost two bids for mayor. Her moderate agenda and centrism had isolated her from leftists and conservatives. By 1978, her husband had died of cancer, as had her father - and Feinstein, then 45, had told reporters she was ready to retire from politics.