Heinz Kerry's story one of heartbreak and triumph
Posted on Tue, Jul. 27, 2004
Heinz Kerry's story one of heartbreak and triumph
By Steven Thomma
Knight Ridder Newspapers
BOSTON - Americans met potential first lady Teresa Heinz Kerry on Tuesday. Whether they liked her or not may not be known for months. But they had to know this: She'd be different from any other American first lady.
Her prime-time speech was designed to fill in the picture of her husband, a warm, wifely testament to a cool and sometimes distant man still unfamiliar to much of the country. But it also offered the first extended look at the woman who shares his most private moments and would accompany him to the White House.
"In America, the true patriots are those who dare speak truth to power," she said Tuesday evening in remarks prepared for delivery. "The truth we must speak now is that America has responsibilities that it is time for us to accept again."
The story of Maria Teresa Thierstein Simoes-Ferreira Heinz Kerry is one of heartbreak and triumph, hardship and fabulous wealth.
Born in Mozambique to Portuguese parents, she would be the first first lady who was not of northern European descent. She would be only the second first lady born outside the United States (the first was John Quincy Adams' wife, Louisa). As a child, she lived in a dictatorship. As a 65-year-old woman, she's one of the wealthiest and arguably most influential women in the country.
More than that, it's her style that sets her apart from most other presidential spouses. She can be blunt, even impolitic.
The candor - she has said she used Botox, that she would maim her husband if he cheated on her, that she made Kerry sign a prenuptial agreement - has endeared her to her supporters, particularly women of her own generation, who see a confident, plain-speaking contemporary.
It's also caused Kerry aides to shrug at their inability to keep her on their carefully written script.
"You know, there are those things that you can do, and those things you can't," joked Mary Beth Cahill, Kerry's campaign manager. "She's not programmed, and she just says what she thinks about what's in front of her."
One emotion she won't hide is her enduring love for her first husband, the father of their three children.
John Heinz, the dashingly handsome ketchup-fortune heir and Republican senator from Pennsylvania, was killed in a plane crash in 1991. In a 2002 interview, she said wistfully of him, "I love my husband." She has said she would happily trade the $500 million she inherited from him to have him back.
She chairs the Heinz Family Philanthropies, overseeing its investments and how its money is used.
Four years after Heinz died, she married Kerry. She didn't formally switch to his Democratic Party until 2003, about the time she added her husband's name to her own. She said it was for political appearances and that she didn't care what people called her.
Despite two marriages to senators and a deep interest in public policy, she doesn't like politics. Back when her first husband was mentioned as a possible presidential candidate, she said, "Over my dead body." A Roman Catholic, she at that time called the prospect of becoming first lady "worse than going to a Carmelite convent."
At ease talking about such wide-ranging issues as the environment, depression or voter apathy, she's nonetheless a tentative presence on the political stage who drops her voice so much that it masks her faint Portuguese accent. Despite an obviously affectionate relationship with Kerry - they often can be seen holding hands - she bristles at overt displays of affection once onstage.
Whether she will help or hurt her husband's campaign is a matter of some debate.
Few analysts think voters make their choice for president based on the vice presidential running mate or the spouse. But Heinz Kerry could help in subtle ways, appealing to working women and older women, and helping to warm up her husband.
"She's feisty, she's facile, she's eloquent," said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a political scientist at the University of Southern California. "She resonates with her audience. And when John Kerry gets up onstage and she is there, he is warmer, more relaxed. There is a real warmth between them, which translates into his ability to connect with his audience."
If some Americans might balk at a foreign accent, Jeffe added, the recent election of Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor of California suggested it wasn't a problem there.
Dennis Goldford, a political scientist at Drake University in Iowa, agreed that Heinz Kerry can warm up her husband. But he also said her wealth and air of privilege could boost the image of Kerry as patrician and aloof, playing Marie Antoinette to his Louis XIV.
As first lady, she would have to write her own job description for a position that swings back and forth between private partner and public advocate, just as homebody Bess Truman did after Eleanor Roosevelt, an advocate for the poor, and as politically ambitious Hillary Rodham Clinton, a working lawyer, did after grandmotherly Barbara Bush.
Re: Smog and others
BumbleBeeBoogie wrote:Smog and others, what is it exactly about Teresa Heing Kerry that makes you feel "weird" about her? Her appearance, her voice, her accent, her money, her age, her intelligence, what she says, being a woman, etc.?
BBB
She is an intelligent, articulate, and, at age 65, handsome woman.
She is also an odd woman.
I was impressed by her speech. I don't know too many people (male or female) who could have delivered such a lengthy speech before such a huge audience (live and in TV land) and maintained such composure.
Her son couldn't. I'm sure he walked off that stage soaked with sweat. It glistened on his brow and he repeatedly made furtive attempts to lick it from his upper lip. Hopefully, he doesn't consider himself a professional, although some fool on PBS tried to suggest that he is in the same league as Obama.
It never dawned on me that she wasn't providing insight into Kerry the man, but then I didn't really expect her to. In retrospect, and having listened to and read the comments expressing disappointment that she did not, I understand the thinking, but it occurs to me that she perhaps she doesn't have much insight to provide. I have a feeling that if asked to provide a personal picture of her former husband she would have lit up the stage. I just don't think she has this kind of relationship with Kerry. It's not a crime, but I find it odd that she speaks so glowingly of the former husband and really rather dryly about her current one.
Her physical demeanor and mannerisms are somewhat odd as well. I'm not suggesting this is the case, but I had the impression, while watching her, that she was slightly intoxicated, particularly when she moved to and from the podium. Perhaps she has a neurological disorder. Perhaps it is just her way of moving, but I find it odd. Her accent is attractive but her speech, at times, seemed slightly slurred again giving the impression of intoxication or neurological problems.
I have no axe to grand with Teresa Heinz Kerry, and I find the bashing of candidate's wives silly if not simply bitchy. I just find her somehow odd. Having an odd woman in the White House might be fun, and she's certainly not a reason to vote against Kerry (nor is she a reason to vote for him), but I think she's odd, and obviously I'm not alone
Yeah, she seemed drugged.
But, when you're that age, you have lots of pretty-colored pills...
I'm not an anti-Teresa, just for the record--just calling it like I see it. It does seem they have a non-traditional marital arrangement. Who can't stand to be kissed by their husband like that? She could at least fake it for the campaign.
Yeah, she seemed drugged.
But, when you're that age, you have lots of pretty-colored pills...
I'm not an anti-Teresa, just for the record--just calling it like I see it. It does seem they have a non-traditional marital arrangement. Who can't stand to be kissed by their husband like that? She could at least fake it for the campaign.
Sofia wrote:It does seem they have a non-traditional marital arrangement. Who can't stand to be kissed by their husband like that? She could at least fake it for the campaign.
Apparently (according to some blog entry I was reading - as if you can trust blogs, I know, but I think it was in some reputable news source's blogs), the two of them are actually quite close and affectionate when they're travelling around, holding hands and things - but she seems to stiffen as soon as they're up on some platform, as if she's just repulsed by the whole showmanship of it. Thats a nice honest trait, though hardly practical for a presidential candidate's wife ...
I have never seen a presidential candidate's wife as creepy as Hillary Clinton.
I have to tell yah, before last night I was a little unsure about Teresa, but after that speech I am a fan. I thought she was candid. I thought she was true. What else would I want??
Joe
If she'd consent to the common nickname usually applied to Teresa she'd be ... Terry Kerry LOL.
Has a nice ring, dontcha think?
Oh, come on Brand X -- I can freeze frame Bush, Cheney, Laura Bush on TV shots and get some ridiculous expressions. Let's see your picture. Are you movie star material?
That's the fun of it, LW!
Mary Todd Lincoln -- What a babe!
I'll say one thing -- Mrs. Edwards could use the Atkins diet and that outfit! Yikes! It looks like Sixties office nun attire.
THK is 65? Did not know that, hope I look that good at 65. Of course, I am sure she has had some work.
They all have. Hillary and Bill both look a little too good. And here all my woman conservative friends have had work done and I thought it was exclusive to them!
Lightwizard
Sticks and Stones:
Lightwizard, shame on you; that was such a cheap shot. I never thought you were so shallow as to comment on women's clothes, their weight, etc. I thought you were more intelligent than to engage in such juvenile criticism. I'm so disappointed because I've always appreciated your intellect.
Did it ever occur to you that Mrs. Edward's remarkable achievement to produce two beautiful babies in her fifties using fertility drugs was to return joy to the family following the death of the Edward's son Wade at the age of 16 in an auto accident? Do you have any idea what such late age pregancies will do to a woman's body? Its tough at any age, but after age 50 even more.
Give her and the rest of us a break---please!
What did you think of her speech? I thought it was outstanding.
BBB
