In Memoriam: Geraldine Anne Ferraro, 1935-2011

[thatcrazycajun]

One of my party's most accomplished leaders—and a history (herstory?) maker—is gone. Former US Representative Geraldine Ferraro (D-NY), attorney, activist and the first woman candidate on a major-party Presidential election ticket, died yesterday at 75 after losing a long battle with multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer. She passed on at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital, and is survived by her husband of 52 years, John Zaccaro, their three children and eight grandchildren. An obituary can be read here.

Though she and her running mate, former Vice President Walter "Fritz" Mondale, lost all but one state to the Reagan/Bush re-election landslide in 1984, she paved the way for women leaders and candidates at the highest levels of government in this country, from Cabinet officers to the Presidency. Both Secretary of State and former First Lady Hillary Clinton and former Alaska governor and first Republican woman VP nominee Sarah Palin acknowledged their debts to Ferraro's having cracked this highest of all glass ceilings in statements yesterday on receiving the sad news.

My heart, thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends, as well as all in and out of politics who mourn her passing. Thank you, ma'am, for helping make ours a more equal and just nation.

Comments

[daisy-knotwise.livejournal.com]

Much like Barbara Jordan, she was ahead of her time.
It's also a shame that she was saddled with a stiff like Mondale.

GHR

[ciceclip.livejournal.com]

Gratitude is the sign of noble souls.