(Phyllis Siegel and Connie Kopelov. Screenshot via YouTube)

Connie Kopelov, one half of the first same-sex couple married in New York, died Saturday in Manhattan after battling Alzheimer’s disease The New York Times reports. She was 90 years old.

Kopelov was with her partner Phyllis Siegel for 23 years before becoming the first same-sex couple to be married in the state on July 24, 2011. Their union followed the state Senate’s June 2011 approval of the Marriage Equality Act.

Speaking to the New York Times, Siegel said the moment was momentous for both of them.

“I lost my breath,” Siegel says.“It was just the most exciting loss of breath I’ve ever had. I just was so happy.”

Born Constance Kopelov on April 14, 1926 in Kokomo, Ind., to Samuel and Bessie Kopelov, she later graduated from Northwestern University in 1947 with a bachelor’s degree in political science. She would go on to earn a master’s from Goddard College in Vermont in 1974.

Kopelov and Siegel met in the 1980’s through working for Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE).

Besides Siegel, Kopelov is survived by her sister, Deborah Dorosin.