Posted on 10/31/2004 1:59:36 AM PST by conservative in nyc
Teresa Heinz Kerry, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, has had a remarkable life even if it does not end up in the White House.
Her name alone -- Teresa Thierstein Simoes-Ferreira Heinz Kerry -- suggests the unusual path followed by the woman born to Portuguese parents in the then-Portuguese colony of Mozambique in 1938.
After studying in South Africa and Switzerland, the young Teresa Simoes-Ferreira moved to the United States to put her fluency in five languages to work at the United Nations.
She married John Heinz, scion of the Pittsburgh-based Heinz food condiment company, in 1966. A Republican senator from Pennsylvania, Heinz died in a plane crash in 1991.
Heinz Kerry inherited a fortune worth hundreds of millions of dollars upon his death and turned down offers to run for his Senate seat to concentrate on raising their three sons and her philanthropic activities.
A registered Democrat since only last year, Heinz Kerry got to know Massachusetts Senator John Kerry when they attended the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. They married in 1995.
If her husband does win the presidency on November 2, Heinz Kerry would be the oldest and just the second foreign-born First Lady of the United States.
The first non-American born First Lady was Louisa Adams, whose husband John Quincy Adams served as president from 1825-1829. Louisa Adams was born in England, the daughter of a British mother and an American father.
In a nod to her cosmopolitan upbringing, Heinz Kerry describes herself as "a little bit of everything."
Heinz Kerry usually appears in public in jacket and tailored pants with a shawl around her shoulders. With her chestnut hair often covering her eyes, she affects a natural look which belies her wealthy background.
"I can only be me," she said in an interview with the US television personality Barbara Walters. "Americans want real people. I am a real person. I may not be what everybody would like to see, but it's real."
Blunt-spoken, Heinz Kerry's frankness has landed her in trouble, such as the time she told a journalist to "shove it."
She was forced to apologize recently to Laura Bush after saying that the First Lady had never held a "real job." Laura Bush was a schoolteacher and librarian before her marriage.
In the popularity stakes, only 38 percent of Americans in a recent Gallup poll said they have a favorable view of Heinz Kerry while 40 percent said they did not. Laura Bush, on the other hand, was viewed favorably by 73 percent of those polled.
Conservative commentator Gary Bauer said Laura Bush "reminds Americans of themselves, someone they can talk to between the back fence or at a cookout."
Heinz Kerry, however, is seen as a "senator's wife with a great fortune, a tough, opinionated lady too old to be bossed around," he said.
On the campaign trail, Heinz Kerry does appeal to immigrants who may share her life story of adopting the United States as their new home. With women, she discusses the difficulties of balancing motherhood and a career or the importance of education.
Since John Heinz's death, Heinz Kerry has headed the Heinz family's charitable foundations -- the Howard Heinz Endowment and the Heinz Family Philanthropies.
She has channelled millions of dollars into the defense of the environment and women's rights, including abortion -- topics central to the presidential campaign.
Kerry has described his wife as "saucy, sexy and brilliant."
Some have said the marriage has helped Kerry financially.
But Heinz Kerry says that since they married in 1995 the couple have kept their personal accounts separate. Kerry even had to mortgage his half of the Boston family home at one low point to finance his campaign for the Democratic nomination.
10/31/2004 02:38 GMT - AFP
A slight correction to the article, her father was Portuguese. Her mother was Italian-French..
Just making a point..
Hmmm...puzzling then that he would run as a "military candidate", then...:)
If she's mixing booze and Prozac, she's crazy.
One of our FReeper's wives is a RN and said with the surety borne of clinical observation that the woman *is* on something.
They become totally uninhibited about "expressing opinions", to the point of embarrassment.
They can't stop themselves.
Heinz Kerry describes herself as "a little bit of everything."
Though at least half of all Americans describe her collective self as a classless, tactless, eurotrash elitist "c word". So please go away bitch! You are Not welcome here!
And btw, saucy & sexy? Christ, she's 65 years old!
So could we keep it a bit more dignified please senator?
Oh, right, you ARE John Kerry. My bad, please continue.
This hardly makes her a genius. Considering her exposure to different languages in her youth, it is only natural that she would be fluent in a number of them.
Right and the Mellon Bank lent him $6 million plus against a US Senator's salary on a property that the city appraised at $8 million.
She must have been the inspiration....:)
"And btw, saucy & sexy? Christ, she's 65 years old!"
They can work miracles with estrogen supplements, these days...;))
It makes one wonder why the democrats would pick this duo to run....Did they think that public appearances wouldn't make this obvious or not. Kerry, obviously, would not call her on this because he is using her dough and also, she has probably been clever about disguising the issue and is probably only telltale some of the time.
LOL! And I hear she's quite the fan of those estrogin & tonic supplements too! ;)
Meds--not booze.
...while the plates on their family's fourth SUV, the British-made 1997 Land Rover Defender, driven by the woman who wants to be America's next first lady, read MOZMBQ.
A reminder of the country Heinz Kerry recently lamented she wished she'd never left. "I can't believe my family left Africa and came to this country," she griped to the New York Post's Cindy Adams.
Yeah well either can we, and don't let us keep you!
I had a Freudian slip when I read the title "The UNremarkable Life..." Everything made perfect sense after that.
and don't let us keep you.... for sure
The title should be: "How a poor little millionaire girl grew up to marry a billionaire."
Heinz has the sex appeal of Hitlery Clinton, Madeleine Albright, Janet Reno and Ruth Bader Ginsberg all rolled up into one dumpy, tousled package.
"A politician's wife has a hard life. To become more of a 'thing' and less of a person is terrible." she said. Too bad her being the wife of a politico isn't what's made her more of a "thing" than a person.
"The only thing I found impressive was that she speaks 5 languages. I'll be fair and tip my hat to that, that's a hallmark of intelligence"
Not really - if your state was surrounded by five others that all spoke different languages, you'd be multi-lingual too.
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