by KYW's Tony Romeo

At a memorial service in Harrisburg on Friday afternoon for the late Pennsylvania lieutenant governor, US senator Hillary Clinton remembered Catherine Baker Knoll as a pioneer for women in politics.

Knoll died last week at age 78 while battling cancer (see related story).

Governor Rendell spoke moments after Lt. Governor Knoll’s flag-draped coffin was placed in the capitol rotunda.

And he referenced some of her more memorable (if not awkward) moments in public life. He recalled how she was criticized for attending the funeral of a soldier killed in Iraq, and passing out business cards to those in attendance:

“And anybody who knows Catherine knows she wasn’t handing out those cards to get votes -- she was handing out those cards because she wanted the family and the friends of the family to call her if there was something they needed.”

He noted that all politicians make mistakes:

“But when she made a mistake, they were always mistakes of the heart.”

The governor also quipped that Knoll, who was a devout Catholic, is already reorganizing heaven. It was a remark picked up on by Senator Clinton (D-NY, above), who spoke as Rendell and the bishop of Harrisburg looked on:

“But Catherine Baker Knoll, governor, while she’s organizing heaven -- and frankly, bishop, encouraging St. Peter to let women have more of a role (laughter)…”

Clinton finished her thought by saying that the late lieutenant governor would want everyone in Pennsylvania to “gird up” for difficult times ahead.

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(File photo from AP)