Then, lowering her voice and raising her eyebrows, she adds, Its a good question, darling. She pauses and tries to get serious. When: On Thursday, January 19, at 11 a.m. Where: Online, for the JCC U at the Kaplen She was a pickpocket.". Sometimes it does but sometimes it really doesnt.". They say, How are the children?, What: Will talk about her new book, among other things. Her decision to run puts the Clintons in a difficult spot. She learned English fast, and comedic timing faster. October 28, 1992 NARBERTH, PA. -- Marjorie Margolies Mezvinsky has a few things on her mind. ", "The other day," said daughter Holly Margolies, 24, "she said to me, 'I want another baby.' "I started to do a series on Korean orphans adopted in this area," she said. When Holly came, it was like receiving a letter bomb. In 1975, she married Congressman Ed Mezvinsky, who had four daughters of his own. That's not all the charges who live in their 35-room home on the Philadelphia Mainline. Recipient five Emmy Awards, American Bar Association award for distinguished contribution to public understanding American system of law and justice; Columbia Broadcasting System News Foundation fellow Columbia . delphia, where her father retired as a purchasing agent for the RCA Corporation. Holly Thi Werth (Margolies) passed away on May 3, 2016, in her home in Boise with her family at her bedside. 'I ran into a lot of opposition. At 25 and single, her own efforts to adopt and start a family were foiled until another assignment, the pertinent topic: hard to place children. She went to Brown, shes married; she has three kids. "Great interview.". She won five Emmys. When Chelsea and Marc got married in 2010, it seemed almost arranged, a dynastic American political marriage in the tradition of Nixons daughter marrying Eisenhowers grandson (another buddy of Margies, by the way). She then adopted a half-American, half-Vietnamese child, Holly, now 18. She made jokes that had half the room gasping in shock, the other half gasping with laughter. In the late 1990s, a job with a software company took her to Idaho, where she met her husband, Doug Werth. Lee Heh arrived from Korea in 1970 and was joined four years later by Holly from Vietnam. Their relationship, he insists, is far more important in Marjories life than whether she wins or loses this race.. "I'm internalizing a lot of it, thank you," Mezvinsky responded. "Now here's a great story," she said last weekend, introducing a couple of reporters to Rosemary Keane, who just quit the Republican Committee in the town of Ambler because she couldn't bring herself to vote for President Bush. I love this!. A group of women came to me and asked me to run. She thought about it, calculated the odds of winning but I always told my kids that you cant win if you arent prepared to lose and decided to try, although I had to give up a job that I really liked, she said. My most arrested child.. A half-dead economy, the confirmation hearings of Justice Clarence Thomas and an insurgent electorate across the country have launched hundreds of candidacies that otherwise never would have been contemplated this year. the mom of 11 kids shares how she became the first single woman in the U.S. believed to have adopted internationally. "Going on vacation when we were young, we would always want to sit next to Holly - we would fight over who got to share her room," her brother Vu Pham said, laughing. Why do you want to do this, Mom? she says, paraphrasing him, Why do you want to open us up again? (Marc Mezvinsky did not respond to a request for comment.). Above, Hillary, Chelsea and Marc in November. She was upfront with her bosses on her dual motive: 'I wasn't kidding anybody. Currently, Lee is single. "She would see something she wanted in a restaurant window, and lie down in front of the door until we went in," Margolies said. Marjorie Margolies is at the World Conference on Women in Beijing in the fall of 1995. The nurse on the other end gasped when Margolies introduced herself. Terrified by rumors that North Vietnamese soldiers would kill children like her daughter as they pushed into Saigon, her mother sent her to an orphanage. He had four daughters from a previous marriage. [1] He later spent five years as head of East Coast research for Fox Films, a predecessor company of 20th Century . In 1973, an adoption agency sent her a photo of the 6-year-old she would name Holly, staring into the camera with a slight smile, holding a placard with her name and birth date. Marjorie Margolies had an incredible career but dreamed of starting a family. That little girl, 7-year-old Lee Heh, became Ms. Margolies' first child; Ms. Margolies is said to have been the first single American woman to adopt a child internationally. I've juggled pretty well.". Mezvinsky says afterward. "I knew it could be hard. The night after the fundraiser I attended with Margolies, Hillary Clinton arrived in Philadelphia to give a speech to the Pennsylvania Conference for Women. That election night, Id only written a concession speech. TCM Emails. If that last fact isnt immediately obvious to everyone attending the fundraiser, it will quickly become so. She arrived angry, convinced her birth mother had abandoned her. In 1973, an adoption agency sent her a photo of the 6-year-old she would name Holly, staring into the camera with a slight smile, holding a placard with her name . First Lady Hillary Clinton chaired the American delegation, and Marjorie Margolies was named. (Shed been a no until he convinced her to change her mind. When Albright and Margolies stop posing for pictures with donors, Margolies, now 71, and impeccable in pearls and an elegant floral jacket, takes the mic and explains why shes running. "People willsay, 'Time will heal.' It was an excuse to get over there, and it worked. After that, three key developments occurred. She told her adoptive mother, the former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Margolies, how to begin her eulogy: "Tell them, 'She was always my favorite child.' Margolies married Ed Mezvinsky in 1975, and four years later they took in a Vietnamese boat family which includes Suu, her son Vu, 10, and Suu's two nephews, Hai, 23, and Dang, 21. But eventually she decided, as she had children of her own - Trent, 10, and Jude, 12 - that she wanted to meet her birth family. Her son, Mark, is married to their daughter, Chelsea. Margolies (with Marc) at her swearing in ceremony in 1993. And I thought about how important it was that we get in in numbers that can make a difference, to change the face and the body of that body. She was a pickpocket, she smoked. In 2007, Doug traveled to Vietnam by himself - "kind of a scout trip," he said - and found family members who spoke of a tough little girl with a sharp sense of humor. Dale Russakoff is the author of "The Prize," published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Is that enough to fuel her political comeback? NBC-TV reporter Margolies surmounted both obstacles in 1970, after several years of effort. In 2002, Ed would plead guilty to 31 counts of bank fraudhe had bilked more than $10 million from unsuspecting investors, including $309,000 from his 86-year-old mother-in-law. She worries that the housekeeper, who has a problem pregnancy, may not be up to driving her son Andrew, 10, to his eye therapy appointment. She shares her role as a proud grandparent with former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He always said, If you can change someones life in a positive way, then do it., The title of her book, And How Are the Children? sounds Jewish. "I can't believe you're so relaxed," voter Sandy Levitt marveled to Mezvinsky last weekend at a crafts fair where she was trolling for votes. What could she say? one political operative told Philadelphiamagazine in 2002. I had no idea what was going on in my own household, but Im equipped to vote on a $2 trillion budget! Lee Margolies lives in Montclair, NJ; previous city include New York NY. When she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2013, he said, his wife began, at last, to open those jars. Holly Thi Werth met her husband, Doug, when a job with a software company took her to Idaho. Book They Came To Stay, by Marjorie Margolies and Ruth Gruber, about adoption of a Korean girl and a Vietnamese girl by Margolies, revd by Betty Jean Lifton; illus . It doesnt work all the time, though, and I was sure that I would lose. My checks have been in the mail (electronically) for 17 years, but what about my stepsons and grandkids? ", Candidate Mezvinsky, milking the Year of the Woman to the max, touts what she privately calls "my crazy family" as the essence of family values and rages at those "trying to preach to me about what a family is.". Doug Werth said Holly didn't talk much about her childhood in Saigon. she asked drily on a video Margolies took of that trip. The brash girl from the big city and the soft-spoken lawyer from the rural Midwest clicked, unexpectedly. Her communications director, now CNN anchor Jake Tapper, was the son of the family pediatrician, and got the job when he tired of film school in Los Angeles. You would feel used.. The youngest children flocked to Holly. An untraditional family at first glimpse but for Margolies, she never imagined simply becoming a mother would spark history. While handing out campaign literature last weekend, he said: "My other mother is Vietnamese and very conservative. A friend of mine called Hillary and said, Why do you think she wants to do this? And Hillary said something that was very interesting. Three weeks after Hillarys speech in Philadelphia, Margoliess organization, Womens Campaign International, hosted a gala for its 15th anniversary. She had been the first single woman in U.S. history to adopt a kid from a foreign country: Lee Heh, a South Korean girl, who eventually became one of 11 children Margolies would consider her owna large family including her biological, adopted, step- and surrogate children. 2 people found this helpful Helpful She gave toasts that prompted acquaintances to ask whether she was a stand-up comedian. 2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. "They lived with us for 25 years," Margolies shared. State representative Brendan Boyle is thought to have a lock on the urban part of the district, and state senator Daylin Leach is the favorite among progressive voters. More than 30 years after she was married, Ms. Margolies went through a painful divorce; her ex-husband, also a former member of Congress, was convicted of fraud. Her house burned down over the summer and is not yet rebuilt. But that's the point. "She smoked. She was frustrated by the budget cutbacks in the TV news industry, but not looking to take a leap. As Cuomo announced hed fight Jew-hatred, the Jews decided to attack him ratherthan the antisemites. She was 48 and the mother of two boys whom she cherished, Jude and Trent Werth. After reporting a story for Philadelphia television on hard-to-place Korean orphans, she was moved to adopt one, and persuaded reluctant adoption officials to let her become the mother of 6-year-old Lee Heh in 1970. ", Among other things, she used her WRC assignments to hunt dates for friends. "I was going to reconcile that and understand that thats what made me a better mother.". Three, her son Marc married Chelsea Clinton. Today, Margolies spends as much time as she can with her 21 grandchildren. Margolies was then a television reporter for NBC Philadelphia, and, a few years earlier, had become the first single American woman to adopt a foreign child: Lee Heh, from South Korea. "(She) stuck out her hand (and) said, 'How do you do,' and that was the only thing she knew how to say," Margolies told TODAYs Hoda Kotb on Tuesday. When he called and said, What would it take? she tells her well-heeled donors, I did not say, Your first-born., Marjorie Margolies in 2009. Fox's campaign consultant, Eddie Mahe, said polls show his man leading by double digits -- Mezvinsky's campaign is not polling -- enough to survive even long coattails to Democrat Bill Clinton. Philadelphia-based Mezvinsky works in international trade and is chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. She comes in, she meets with [Hillary], but [Hillary] doesnt do a shout-out for her. He adds, I am fairly confident by the end of this campaign that well see the Clintons help a lot. Its certainly plausible: Margolies has already received a $2,600donation from Bill and a surrogate in the person of Madeleine Albright. Holly arrived sickly. "I didnt know if and when I would marry. "Sometimes, it was political. 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The implication of this, Fenton tells me, is that nothing is as important as what she needed personally, politically, and therefore she would have no problem conscience-wise to sign onto this lawsuit. Margolies became the first single woman to adopt internationally in the United States of America. Let me say, that there are moments where I have been laying on the sofa saying, 'why did I get into this? She has not attempted to hide her liberal Democratic leanings in a 2-1 Republican district. My dad would have loved this particular Danish, and I really hope that wherever he is, he is able to enjoy her as much as I am. She was 6. Werth died May 3 at her home in Boise, Idaho, at age 48. Her assignment as a CBS correspondent soon opened a door she never imagined. 'What better thing is there to pour money into but children. Please enter valid email address to continue. Margolies chronicled their experiences in the 1976 best-seller, They Came to Stay (Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1976), the first of five books she has authored. And her staff is on her back to make fund-raising calls. What appeared as a full plate for the intrepid reporter and single mom of two young girls was just the beginning of Margolies' story. As she shakes hands in town after town, it is sometimes hard to tell whether the recently lapsed journalist is conducting interviews for a story or campaigning. Her assignment as a CBS correspondent soon opened a door she never imagined. Inside the party, Margolies is in her element, and not only because shes engulfed in a familiar sea of air kisses and cheese plates. The first death occurred on Aug. 5, 1993, when Clinton was one vote short of passing a budget bill and convinced Margolies to change her mind. My husband gets a raise and we have to give it back in health care costs. Margoliess decision to run undoubtedly puts the Clintons, eyeing a race of their own, in a tough spot, writes van Zuylen-Wood. Margolies became the first unmarried U.S. citizen to adopt a foreign child. Lee Heh arrived from Korea in 1970 and was joined four years later by Holly from Vietnam. At weddings, at funerals, at family dinners and raucous parties, she would walk into a room, assess the situation, and say something that cut right to the crux of things. 'Everybody takes turns cooking,' says Margolies. Mezvinsky never asked Fenton to invest, and Fenton does not suspect Margolies was involved in his schemes. Sure enough that is exactly the theme of Margoliess riff at the fundraiser, when she refers to the time Bill phoned from the Oval Office to beg for her vote. Her highest honours came with the women's 4100 m relay team, with which was a . ", Vietnamese-born Vu Pham, 17, who was 5 when he and his family moved in, refers to Mezvinsky as "my other mother." Perhaps the question to ask is not whether the Clintons will comebut whether itll make any difference if they do. The winter after the vote, she and the family were invited for the first time to the intellectual house party that was the famous annual Renaissance Weekend in Hilton Head, S.C., a New Years ritual for the first family. "Since 1998, we've been traveling around the world helping women, getting them to the table," she said. The personal which she got to in part through the professional is that she is the mother of 11 children. After exactly three minutes and 30 seconds, Margolies stops talking and yields the floor to Madam Secretary, who proceeds to flesh out the story about the time she busted a move with a younger guy at Marc and Chelseas wedding. Then the family returned. Her vote tied the count at 217 to 217; given House rules, it passed. In exchange for her vote on the budget bill, President Clinton agreed to attend a conference on entitlement reform in her district. When Margolies was elected to the House in 1992, she was in her early 50s, and her last name was Margolies-Mezvinsky. Holly, a half-Vietnamese, half-American child, was a street child. Margolies told TODAY. She was also a fiscal hawk representing Philadelphias moneyed suburbs; prior to her election, her district had gone Republican every year since 1916. The reason thats funny is that one of her sons, Marc Mezvinsky, is married to Bill and Hillary Clintons only child, Chelsea Clinton. ("I hate fund-raising calls," she silently mouths to a visitor as an aide hands her a telephone.). But tonight, its her entire pitch. She was born Ho Thi Thu Nga in Nha Trang, Vietnam, to a Vietnamese woman and an American serviceman. Another friend, Nancy Chasen, says that they were just best best best friends.) However close Chelsea and Marc were, Ed Mezvinsky tried to use their bond to his advantage.
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