Teresa Heinz Kerry

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Maria Teresa Thierstein Simões-Ferreira Heinz Kerry (born October 5, 1938), is a philanthropist and the wife of U.S. Senator John Kerry.

1 Early life
2 Marriages and children
3 Her Name
4 Philanthropy
5 Wealth
6 Politics
7 Public relations
- 7.1 The Tribune-Review incident
- 7.2 The Laura Bush incident
8 External links

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Early life

Image:Teresa heinz kerry family.gif

According to her official biography, Teresa was born Maria Teresa Thierstein Simões-Ferreira to Portuguese parents in Mozambique, which was a colony of Portugal at the time. Her father was Dr. José Simões-Ferreira, and her mother was Irene Thierstein.

Teresa (pronounced TRE-zuh) grew up in Mozambique's capital, Lourenço Marques (now called Maputo). Her father was a medical doctor, and "Teresinha" (the diminutive of Teresa in Portuguese) led a relatively privileged life. Her father would, however, often bring her along on his calls into the African bush, where she witnessed how those of lesser means lived.

Teresa Simões-Ferreira earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Romance Languages and literature from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. She graduated from the Interpreters School of the University of Geneva (Switzerland) before moving to the United States to work at the United Nations as a translator.

She is fluent in five languages: English, Spanish, French, Italian, and her native Portuguese.

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Marriages and children

Teresa Simões-Ferreira married billionaire and future Pennsylvania U.S. Senator Henry John Heinz III of the Heinz family famous for their food products on February 5, 1966 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A few years after the marriage, in 1971, Teresa Heinz became a naturalized citizen of the United States. The couple had three sons: H. John Heinz IV (born 1967), Andre Heinz (born 1970) and Christopher Drake Heinz (born 1973).

According to her official bio, Teresa Heinz first met John F. Kerry in 1990 at an Earth Day rally. This was the only reported time that she and John Kerry met before the death of Senator Heinz. After Senator Heinz died in an airplane crash on April 4, 1991 in Pennsylvania, Teresa Heinz inherited his vast fortune.

The next time she met John Kerry was at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992 during the Earth Summit, which Ms. Heinz attended as a member of a State Department delegation appointed by President George H. W. Bush. Their courtship began in 1993, and they were married on May 26, 1995 on Nantucket, Massachusetts. She chose to keep her name as Teresa Heinz, and also remained a registered Republican, until John Kerry's presidential bid.

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Her Name

In May 2004, she had this to say about her name: "My legal name is still Teresa Heinz. Teresa Heinz Kerry is my name... (only) for politics. Just so people don't ask me questions about so and so is so and so's wife or this and that. Teresa Heinz is what I've been all my growing-up life, adult life, more than any other name. And it's the name of my boys, you know?...So, that's my legal name and that's my office name, my Pittsburgh name."[1]

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Philanthropy

Teresa Heinz reportedly is one of the most philanthropic women in the world today. She is the chair of The Howard Heinz Endowment and the Heinz Family Philanthropies (collectively, the Heinz Foundations), disbursing money to various social and environmental causes. She assists the community of Pittsburgh, where the Heinz family has had many financial and family connections. In recognition of her philanthropy and activism, Heinz Kerry has received ten honorary doctoral degrees from the following institutions:

Teresa Heinz was also awarded the prestigious Albert Schweitzer Gold Medal for Humanitarianism in 2003. She has been elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has also been a trustee of New England Prep School, St. Paul's School, which her husband John Kerry also attended.

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Wealth

Teresa Heinz is the life estate beneficiary or outright beneficiary of her husband's trusts, making her either extremely wealthy in her own name, or powerful as a trustee of Heinz family wealth. Sen. Kerry is wealthy in his own right, though not to the same degree, since he became a trust fund beneficiary of his mother's and Forbes family trusts. Sen. Kerry and Teresa Heinz signed a prenuptial agreement and have kept their premarital assets separate.

To date, Teresa Heinz has declined to disclose her personal tax returns, citing family trusts and privacy. She is estimated to be worth between $750 million and $1.2 billion. According to her most recently released income tax of 2003, the Kerry and Heinz paid an effective federal income tax rate of 12%. Most of her income was derived from tax free municipal bonds, which explains the low rate.

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Politics

Teresa Heinz was a registered Republican for most of her voting career, the same as her first husband, Senator Heinz, and she remained a registered Republican despite being married to the Democratic Senator John Kerry. However, being a registered Republican was politically incongruous with being married to a Senator running for President on the Democratic ticket. In January of 2003, she changed her registration to the Democratic Party. Later in 2004, she reportedly changed her name from Teresa Heinz to Teresa Heinz Kerry during her husband's presidential run. After her husband's defeat, and shortly before she gave a speech to the National Council for Research on Women, in January 2005 she changed her name back to Teresa Heinz.

She is said to have been encouraged to run for her husband's Heinz vacant Senate seat after his death. She declined; she also refused to endorse Republican Rick Santorum's bid for the seat, publically denouncing him as the "antithesis" of her late husband, and later calling him "Forrest Gump with attitude."

Two of her sons are believed to be Democrats. Christopher and André Heinz both spoke at the Democratic National Convention in July of 2004. Christopher is believed to be considering running for the House or the Senate from the state of Pennsylvania. John Heinz IV keeps a lower profile, and his political leanings are unclear.

Had Senator Kerry been elected President, Heinz Kerry would have been only the second foreign-born First Lady of the United States and the first to be a naturalized citizen. British-born Louisa Adams, wife of President John Quincy Adams was born in London, but since her father was an American diplomat she was considered an American citizen from birth.

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Public relations

Teresa Heinz has a reputation in the media as a very direct personality. A crew of Newsweek magazine reporters -- who were given exclusive behind-the-scenes access to the Kerry campaign -- portrayed her as "sullen" and a "distraction," a woman with "sometimes erratic behavior" that led to her not being allowed to travel and not speak without chaperones, a policy the reporters called "Managing Teresa" [2] [3] [4].

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The Tribune-Review incident

Right before the 2004 Democratic National Convention in late July, 2004, Teresa Heinz hit her first public relations snafu when being questioned by Colin McNickle, conservative editor of the opinion page of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

During her speech on declining civility during political campaigns, Teresa Heinz stated, "We need to turn back some of the creeping, un-Pennsylvanian and sometimes un-American traits that are coming into some of our politics".

After the speech she passed through a crowd of supporters and journalists and McKnickle asked her what she meant about "un-American activities."

Here is a transcript of the exchange with McNickle that was recorded by The Patriot-News of Harrisburg and WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh, which aired the exchange on its 11 o'clock news:

McNickle: "What did you mean?"

Teresa Heinz: "I didn't say that. I didn't say that."

McNickle: "I was just asking what you said."

Teresa Heinz: "Why do you put those words in my mouth?"

McNickle: "You said something about 'un-American activity.'"

A Kerry campaign worker attempted to stop the questioning.

Teresa Heinz: "No, I didn't say that, I did not say 'activity' or 'un-American.' Those were your words."

She walked away, paused, consulted Gov. Ed Rendell, D-Pennsylvania, and returned to McNickle.

Teresa Heinz: "Are you from the Tribune-Review?"

McNickle: "Yes, I am."

Teresa Heinz: "Understandable. You said something I didn't say -- now shove it."

[5].

The televised incident can be viewed at [6].

Teresa Heinz's choice of words spurred controversy. New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton gave her support for her comment and said, "A lot of Americans are going to say, 'Good for you, you go, girl,' and that's certainly how I feel about it." [7]

WTAE-TV news anchor Scott Baker captured Teresa Heinz's remarks on tape and insisted McNickle had asked "a pretty straightforward question."

"He was not combative. I think he seemed to be polite. The question that he asked was one that had already occurred to me," Baker said. "Clearly, she was rankled by it." [8]

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The Laura Bush incident

In an interview published in the USA Today, Teresa Heinz was asked about the differences between the first lady and herself:

"Well, you know, I don't know Laura Bush. But she seems to be calm, and she has a sparkle in her eye, which is good. But I don't know that she's ever had a real job—I mean, since she's been grown up. So her experience and her validation comes from important things, but different things." [9]

Almost immediately news stations across the country picked up the story. Talk shows and news stations heavily criticized Teresa Heinz, stating Laura Bush has been employed first as a teacher, and as a librarian.

Traditionally, there is a very strong bi-partisan agreement that politician's families are never to be a subject for political attacks, most especially children. Most Democrats and Republicans were, together as a group, very upset by Teresa Heinz's remarks out of concern for the vulnerability of their own families.

Teresa retracted the statement later saying she was "sincerely sorry" for the remark: "I had forgotten that Mrs. Bush had worked as a schoolteacher and librarian, and there couldn't be a more important job than teaching our children," Teresa Heinz said. "As someone who has been both a full time mom and full time in the workforce, I know we all have valuable experiences that shape who we are. I appreciate and honor Mrs. Bush's service to the country as first lady, and am sincerely sorry I had not remembered her important work in the past." [10]

Senior Bush campaign adviser Karen Hughes called Teresa's remarks "inappropriate" and claimed the apology made things worse: "I think it's very nice that she apologized, but in some ways the apology almost made the comment worse because she seems to have forgotten that being a mother is a real job. I think it's just unfortunate to try to disparage women who have made the choice of making their families a priority." [11]

Laura Bush brushed the whole thing off saying,"It didn't matter to me. It didn't hurt my feelings. It was perfectly all right that she apologized. She didn't have to apologize. I know how tough it is. And actually I know those trick questions." [12]

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