Everyone at the apartment of Roberta Kaplan, the lawyer who argued Edith Windsor’s successful challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act, exploded in screams and sobs when the ruling came down. Kaplan called her mother and said, “Total victory, Mom: it couldn’t be better.” Windsor said, “I wanna go to Stonewall right now!” Then she called a friend and said, “Please get married right away!”

Update: Just after 11 A.M., the President called. Kaplan picked up the phone and gave it to Windsor. “Hello, who am I talking to?” Windsor said. “Oh, Barack Obama? I wanted to thank you. I think your coming out for us made such a difference throughout the country.”

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See a slide show of important moments from Edith Windsor’s life, as well as from her marriage with Thea Spyer, who died in 2009.

Photographs, of Edith Windsor and Roberta Kaplan, by Ariel Levy.

[#image: /photos/5909519dc14b3c606c1038ea]Read our full coverage of gay marriage before the Supreme Court.