 Teresa
Heinz Kerry
Political Personality
By Anne Adams
"Clothing is wonderful, but let them go naked
for a while, at least the
kids," said Teresa Heinz Kerr in mid-September,
2004 when she was
paying a visit to Brooklyn Caribbean immigrants
who were packing
supplies for hurricane relief. "Water is
necessary, and then generators,
and then food, and then clothes," she continued.
A reporter later
explained that Mrs. Kerry was expressing an
opinion that some relief
workers had been emphasizing providing clothes
when what victims
really needed first were provision for water,
power and food. Yet
while that may well have been her meaning, once
again she had
expressed her opinion in such a way that it
attracted media attention -
and controversy. For while some wives of
presidential candidates do
not attract such attention, Mrs. Kerry's
outspoken honesty assures her
the attention that comes with such a practice.
Yet if she is somewhat
unique and non-traditional in her candid
frankness, her background is
just as unique.
Teresa Simoes-Ferreira was born in Mozambique,
East Africa on
October 5, 1938, to a Portuguese doctor and his
wife in what was then
a Portuguese colony. Her family was well off
financially, her father
had an active practice and Teresa accompanied
him occasionally into
the African bush to treat his patients. After
receiving an undergraduate
degree at a university in Johannesburg, South
Africa, Teresa attended
and then graduated from a Swiss interpreters'
school, then came to the
U.S. to work as a translator at the United
Nations. She had become
fluent in not just English, and her native
Portuguese but also in
Spanish, French and Italian.
In 1966 Teresa married Henry John Heinz III, a
member of the Heinz
Foods company family, who was then a Republican
senator
representing Pennsylvania. They had three sons:
John, Andre and
Christopher. However, when Senator Heinz was
killed in an airplane
crash on April 4, 1991, Mrs. Kerry inherited the
large Heinz fortune.
She declined to run for the Senator's vacant
seat, feeling that she
should devote her time to her sons, and new
responsibilities as head of
the various Heinz charitable foundations.
She first met Senator John Kerry from
Massachusetts at an Earth Day
rally in 1990 before her first husband's death.
However, they renewed
their acquaintance in Rio de Janeiro Brazil a
year later when she was
serving as part of a State Department delegation
appointed by
President George H. W. Bush. They began a
courtship in 1993 and
were married on May 26, 1995 on Nantucket,
Massachusetts.
However, aside from a familiar role as wife of a
U.S. Senator, Mrs.
Kerry has created her own niche as chair of
several Heinz family
foundations that contributes funds to various
social and environmental
causes. She has also assisted the community of
Pittsburgh where the
Heinz family has many social and financial
connections. She has
received ten honorary doctoral degrees, and was
awarded the Albert
Schweitzer Gold Medal for Humanitarianism in
2003.
As an outspoken campaigner for her husband,
while Mrs. Kerry has
attracted criticism for her comments, she has
also gained the
admiration of many supporters for her
willingness to assert her own
individuality. Also, should her husband be
elected president, Mrs.
Kerry would be the second foreign-born First
Lady, the first being
British-born Louisa Adams, wife of President
John Quincy Adams
who served in the 1820s.
~*~
A native of Kansas City, Missouri , Anne grew up
in northwestern
Ohio , and holds degrees in history: a BA from
Wilmington College ,
Wilmington , Ohio (1967), and a MA from Central
Missouri State
University , Warrensburg , Missouri (1968).
A freelance writer since the early 1970s, she
has published in Christian
and secular publications, has taught history on
the junior college level,
and has spoken at national and local writers'
conferences. Her book
"Brittany, Child of Joy", an account of her
severely retarded daughter,
was issued by Broadman Press in 1987. She also
publishes an
encouragement newsletter "Rainbows Along the
Way."
|
