On 25 September 2011, Wangari Maathai died of ovarian cancer in Nairobi. She was 71 years old.
She had lived long enough to see herself go from being called a mad woman by the president to receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. She had planted 47 million trees, trained thousands of women to be environmental and political activists, written books, served in parliament, and shown that one person with enough conviction could change a country.
Kenya mourned her with the depth of feeling reserved for people who have made the country genuinely better. She was buried near the trees she had planted for a lifetime.