Yesterday, friends, family and notable politicians paid their last respects to former Congresswoman and vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro at an Upper East Side church. Her 1984 running mate, former Vice President Walter Mondale, said, "Every day she was patronized in a way not experienced by her male counterparts. But she would not relent. She came back each day tougher and better."
Ferraro, who had battled cancer for many years, passed away on Saturday at age 75. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, "Gerry and I are often linked together. She is seen correctly as paving the way for my political career and those of many other women. We owe her so much. She inspired us women and girls. All of us thought new thoughts and imagined new possibilities because of Gerry," adding, "When that day comes—and it will come—-when a woman is elected president or vice-president, we will know that Gerry helped make it possible."
Other attendees included former President Bill Clinton, Mayor Bloomberg, former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, former Governor Mario Cuomo (Ferraro's mentor and friend), and Senators Charles Schumers and Kirsten Gillibrand, who fondly remembered Ferraro's rousing 1984 speech accepting the nomination, "I loved in her speech at the convention where she says, ‘It’s not what America can do for women, it’s what women can do for America.'"
