Michelle Lynn Woda, an entrepreneur and community volunteer, who helped pave the way to fairness toward female workers, and a mother of three and grandmother of four, died Sept. 27 at Cleveland Clinic. She was 56.

She died of a pulmonary aneurysm following a bout with lung cancer, her daughter, Seneca Weirich, said.

“She was really tough,” Ms. Weirich said. “She had me at 17. She raised three kids all by herself. And all she did was work to give us the best of everything.”

Ms. Woda was a dispatcher and logistics specialist at several northwest Ohio trucking companies from the early 1990s until December, 2002. She successfully sued a major Toledo firm for alleged wage discrimination alongside co-plaintiff Lisa Zautner.

In their lawsuit against Heidtman Steel, where they both worked as d

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