A former US Ambassador to Ghana Shirley Temple Black has died at the age of 85.

Shirley Temple replaced Fred L. Hadsel and presented her Credentials on December 6, 1974, and left her post on July 13, 1976. She was succeeded by Robert P. Smith.

The former Hollywood child star found fame as a young girl in the 1930s in films like Bright Eyes, Stand Up and Cheer and Curly Top.

After retiring from films in 1950 at the age of 21, Temple returned to the public eye as a Republican candidate for Congress and as a US diplomat.

Temple Black "peacefully passed away" at her Woodside, Calif., home from natural causes at 10:57 p.m. local time (0157 ET), surrounded by her family and caregivers, her family said in a statement on Tuesday.

She was appointed ambassador to Ghana by former US President Gerald Ford in 1974, and two years later made her chief of protocol.

"I have no trouble being taken seriously as a woman and a diplomat here," Black said after her appointment as U.S. ambassador to Ghana in 1974. "My only problems have been with Americans who, in the beginning, refused to believe I had grown up since my movies."