Geraldine Ferraro was ahead of her time. As the Democratic vice presidential candidate running with Walter Mondale in 1984, she made a splash on the nation and impressed young women on both sides of the aisle.
That race was lost in a landslide to President Ronald Reagan and his vice president, George H.W. Bush, but Ferraro had smashed yet another glass ceiling for women. I didn’t agree with her politics but I certainly admired her willingness to stand up for what she believed in and dive into the national political scene.
Geraldine Ferraro died Saturday at the age of 75 of complications from multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that she had battled for twelve years. Her family released a statement saying, “Geraldine Anne Ferraro Zaccaro was widely known as a leader, a fighter for justice, and a tireless advocate for those without a voice. To us, she was a wife, mother, grandmother and aunt, a woman devoted to and deeply loved by her family. Her courage and generosity of spirit throughout her life waging battles big and small, public and personal, will never be forgotten and will be sorely missed.”
Her legacy is firmly planted in history. She was a lawyer, U.S. Congresswoman, UN Ambassador during President Bill Clinton’s administration, and served on a number of Democratic campaigns and committees throughout the years.
In 1984, the press was somewhat kinder to a woman vice presidential candidate than they were twenty-four years later when Republican Sarah Palin ran with John McCain in 2008. However, as they did with Palin, the media questioned candidate Ferraro’s background as well as her experience for the job, scrutinized her husband’s finances, and speculated that her addition to the Democratic ticket was a gamble for a presidential win. Remembering that 1984 campaign, Ferraro criticized the media for their attacks on Palin.
Palin, forever tied in history to Ferraro, expressed her sadness in a statement, noting, “My family and I would like to express our sincere condolences to the family of Geraldine Ferraro. When I had the honor of working alongside Geraldine on election night last year, we both discussed the role of women in politics and our excited expectations that someday that final glass ceiling would be shattered by the election of a woman president. She was an amazing woman…. She broke one huge barrier and then went on to break many more. The world will miss her. May she rest in peace and may her example of hard work and dedication to America continue to inspire all women.”
In 2001, after revealing her battle with multiple myeloma, an incurable blood cancer, she became an advocate for cancer research, serving as an honorary board member of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation. The five-year relative survival rate for multiple myeloma is one of the lowest of all cancers at approximately 38%, a testament to her twelve years of survival with the deadly disease.
In her later years Ferraro became a Fox News contributor and was co-host of CNN‘s “Crossfire.”
Ferraro is survived by her husband of 50 years, real estate developer John Zaccaro, their three children, and eight grandchildren.
