Historical records matching Kitty Dukakis
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About Kitty Dukakis
Kitty Dukakis was an American author and activist for various social causes. She was married to Michael Dukakis, who served as Governor of Massachusetts from 1975 to 1979 and 1983 to 1991.
Early life
Dukakis was born Katharine Virginia Dickson in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the daughter of Jane (née Goldberg) and Harry Ellis Dickson. Her paternal grandparents were Russian Jews; her mother was born to an Irish Catholic father and a Hungarian Jewish mother, and had been adopted by a family of German Jewish descent. Her father was a member of the first violin section of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 49 years and also served as Associate Conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra.
She graduated from Brookline High School in 1954 and attended Pennsylvania State University. She dropped out of college in 1956 and married John Chaffetz in 1957. They had one son, John. After four years and several moves the marriage ended in divorce, and she returned to Cambridge. Her former husband later remarried and had a son, Jason Chaffetz, who is a former Republican Congressman from Utah.
Kitty received her B.A. from Lesley College in 1963, the same year she married Michael Dukakis in a civil ceremony. The couple had two daughters. She received some criticism for being a Jewish woman who married a Christian man; however, in a 1988 interview, Kitty asserted that marrying outside her faith had actually strengthened her identification with Judaism. She began attending a synagogue following a trip to Israel in 1976, and by 1988, she was attending Temple Israel, a reform synagogue in Boston.
She received a M.A. degree from Boston University College of Communication in 1982. In the mid-1990s, Dukakis graduated from the Boston University School of Social Work with a master's degree in social work, successfully performing her practicum at Charles River Hospital in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
Career
Kitty Dukakis was the First Lady of Massachusetts from 1975 to 1979, and from January 1983 until January 1991. She kept an office in the Massachusetts State House, and would frequently visit her husband's office to seek his opinion on projects she was involved in.
Dukakis joined her husband, Michael Dukakis, on the campaign trail during his 1988 presidential campaign, speaking as a "poised and energetic public speaker" at many of his events. The New York Times noted in May 1988 that "[she] does not slip easily into the fixed and adoring stare perfected by generations of political wives. She is a toucher, a talker, a woman who laughs easily and gives orders with equal gusto". She was a speaker at campaign events aimed towards the Jewish community, where she used her "scanty Yiddish".
Dukakis was involved in multiple social causes throughout her political career. She was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, serving until 1987, when her term expired. She was reappointed to the council in 1989 by President George H. W. Bush. She also served on the President's Commission on the Holocaust.
Starting during her husband's second term, Dukakis served as co-chair of the Massachusetts Governor’s Advisory Committee on the Homeless, where she worked on plans to share shelter costs with charities within the state. Her work "helped to dramatically increase the number of state-funded homeless shelters" in Massachusetts.
Dukakis was also interested in aiding Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees, and served on the board of the Refugee Policy Center. In the early 1980s, she established the Task Force on Cambodian Children. As an advocate for Cambodian refugees, Dukakis visited refugee camps in Thailand and helped bring refugee children to the U.S.
Addiction & mental health activism
Dukakis struggled with depression for much of her life, which drove an addiction to diet pills, and later a struggle with alcoholism. She overcame her addiction to diet pills in 1982, making that fact public when her husband began his presidential bid. While on the campaign trail, she shared her story of addiction with high schoolers.
After Michael Dukakis lost the 1988 presidential election, Kitty's depression worsened. In February 1989, she entered an alcohol treatment program. In November 1989, she was briefly hospitalized after drinking rubbing alcohol.[24] In 1991, Dukakis published her memoir, Now You Know, in which she candidly discussed her ongoing battle with alcoholism and the pressures of being a political wife.
Beginning in 2001, Dukakis underwent electroconvulsive therapy to treat her depression. She released a book on the subject, Shock: The Healing Power of Electroconvulsive Therapy, in 2006, and became a leading proponent of using ECT to treat depression. She allowed the TV program 60 Minutes to film one of her ECT sessions as part of a program on the subject.
In 2007, the Lemuel Shattuck Hospital in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, opened a center for addiction treatment named after Dukakis. In her later years, Dukakis ran a support group in Brookline for those struggling with depression.
All text above via Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Sources
- "Kitty Dukakis." Wikipedia, revision of 22 March 2025. < link > Accessed 22 March 2025.
- Merzer, Martin. "She takes pride in her Jewish heritage, its rich traditions." The Day of New London via Newspapers.com, published 28 July 1988, p. C1. < link > Accessed 22 March 2025.
- Seelye, Katharine Q. "Kitty Dukakis, Wife of 1988 Presidential Nominee, Dies at 88." The New York Times, published 22 March 2025. < link > Accessed 22 March 2025.
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Kitty Dukakis's Timeline
| 1936 |
December 26, 1936
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Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States
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| 2025 |
March 21, 2025
Age 88
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At home, Brookline, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States
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