She gave speeches at memorials that made everyone cry and laugh in the same breath. Instead, she said, she voted for the budget because she thought that although it had many problems, it still absolutely had to pass. Elected in 1992dubbed the Year of the Woman, after the female representation of Congress doubledshe was a staunch feminist who had recently given up a career as an Emmy-Award winning television journalist. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and did graduate work at Columbia. And I met this little girl who shook my hand and said 'how do you do'.'. October 28, 1992 NARBERTH, PA. -- Marjorie Margolies Mezvinsky has a few things on her mind. 'I think I was the first single woman in the United States to adopt a. 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. Her career as an activist was just getting started, though. I was at his wedding, you know. Leleith Hodges - Wikipedia "She was forced to sort of quiet her life - and really become at peace with herself," he said. The boat family was supposed to stay at most one year, but have stayed seven. The bride, formerly on the NBC News staff here, is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Margolies of Phila. She was upfront with her bosses on her dual motive: 'I wasn't kidding anybody. "Eat, eat, eat!". But eventually she decided, as she had children of her own - Trent, 10, and Jude, 12 - that she wanted to meet her birth family. 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! "I could tell you if we ever had guests, Holly would walk in and shed say, 'Are we gonna adopt any of these people?'" "See what I mean?" "Holly was our favorite patient," the nurse told Margolies. Currently, five of the children are in college, one attends a conservatory in France, and four others are in private schools. (See below.). In the car on the way to the Albright event, I ask how involved the Clintons are in her campaign. "So sweet.". "They lived with us for 25 years," Margolies shared. Encyclopedia Brunoniana | Olney-Margolies Athletic Center We just lost a lot of stuff.' 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. 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. A couple times a week, the entire family sits down to dinner as one, large group, but for the most part meals are served in two sittings. And Ed just followed., (Margolies declined to comment on the Fenton lawsuit or the bankruptcy case. And she would seemingly do something for you, but then call in the obligation at another time. She was a terror, but fabulous. Which makes tapping into Clintonworld for campaign help all the more intuitive for her. If I have problems with her, I go to Margie. Lee Heh Margolies, 58 - Montclair, NJ - Has Court or Arrest Records Lee Heh could get only a student visa, "and she was the youngest student ever to get one." Eventually, the adoption went . But when unmarried Marjorie Margolies picked up six-year-old Lee Heh 15 years ago in Korea, it simply wasn't done. Department: The Feminist: Marjorie Margolies - Page 2 of 5 She made you feel incredibly lazy. WASHINGTON -- A single woman adopting a child hardly raises an eyebrow these days. ', 'But my overwhelming feeling is that it has been so satisfying, and the kids are so wonderful. Marjorie Margolies of NBC Wed to Rep. Edward Mezvinsky A memorial service will be Sunday, June 5, in the Amado Recital Hall in the Irvine Auditorium at 3401 Spruce St. on the University of Pennsylvania campus. Ms. Margolies came home with another child, Holly, who was half Vietnamese, half American, and totally impossible, she said with obvious love. "I was known as the real Dairy Queen," she said of her days at WRC, where she pumped breast milk between assignments, froze it and carted it home by car every week. Toni Goldberg defends Margolies as a career woman who was too busy to pay heed to her husbands schemes, but she says the judges indictment made sense to many at the time. Apparently, it is all how you look at it. "Holly was impossible," Margolies shared. Jake! she says, when I bring up her old crew. California residents do not sell my data request. Then, three years later in Vietnam, serendipity when Margolies ran into people from the same adoption agency. Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, former United States Representative from Pennsylvania, political organization worker. My parents had sponsored two young women to come to the U.S., one was from Bolivia and one was from Spain. The adoption agencies basically said no. The In-Law - The New York Times Why is the Chinese dragon laying eggs in different baskets? The brash girl from the big city and the soft-spoken lawyer from the rural Midwest clicked, unexpectedly. We thank our board members for their support. "If I'm elected, it'll be because I'm different and people want me to be different for them," said Mezvinsky. Her highest honours came with the women's 4100 m relay team, with which was a . It all began when Marjorie Margolies got a reporting assignment in Korea. When I float the possibility that some of her donors dont know their district has moved, Margolies belts out a deep-throated laugh and says, Thank God!. "I started to do a series on Korean orphans adopted in this area," she said. "I'm internalizing a lot of it, thank you," Mezvinsky responded. What she did next changed history. That gnomic sentiment has been around at least since the early 1970s, and just about every possible shade of meaning that could be hung on it has been. Margolies became the first unmarried U.S. citizen to adopt a foreign child. Here is another column on the joys of getting older. The honoree? Public File for KYW-TV / CBS Philadelphia. I FIDF supports men and women of Israels army, Blue square raising antisemitism awareness, Yeshiva University toopen Maimonides exhibit, National Geographic offers a series on Anne Frank and Miep Gies story, Creating memories through the JFCS Corner Market Kosher Food Pantry, Dutch hidden child to speak for NJ JWV group, Holocaust survivor to tell her story at RCC, Love for Israel fromgeneration to generation, Sassons of New City honored at Israel Bonds conference, Pennsylvania governor bested by Jewish media mogul, The Lonely Child headed to Carnegie Hall, A Chanukah party with the sounds of Six13, An Iron Dome of protectionfrom Monsey to Montauk, First US case of polio in nearly a decade diagnosed, Man charged in drawing swastikasin Monsey synagogue as questions remain, Israel Bonds Rockland Womens Divisionhas gala brunch, As war rages in Ukraine, another visit with the helpers, Rockland shul donates Chromebooks to religious school, Womens League honoredfour Rockland women, Storm King: Where sculpture reigns supreme, Remembering the NYC teachers strike of 68, One girl can celebrate her two birthdays, A is for apple picking and for awesome activity, Advice on preventing back-to-school sports injuries, How to get your child back into a sleep routine, For your entertainment,Ezra the magician and his tricks, BCHSJS launches new academic program, Better to Serve, An inaugural trip to Israel on Birthright, Valley and Mount Sinai expand partnership for childrens services, Demarest teen donates raffle win to local mental health support program, A tale of the mystery of the missing sock, Aishs Jamie Gellermakes Shavuot meals quick and easy, Chai Lifeline Englewood friends and fun Shabbaton. "People willsay, 'Time will heal.' "And that," Margolies said, through tears, "was Holly.". Whats it like being the son ofa major league baseball player? Now, Ms. Margolies is, among many other things, a founder and the president of the Womens Campaign International, which, according to its publicity, provides empowerment training for women around the world; shes also an adjunct faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania and a fellow at the Fels Institute of Government there. I dont gamble, but I do take chances, she said. And I thought, here I am, standing here, part of all this. ), What about Liz Cheney? For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Achievements include supporting refugee children and families. Former US Rep. reveals was first single woman to adopt internationally "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. Bill and Hillary came, took a stroll on the boardwalk and stayed for the party. / CBS Philadelphia. And she was very, very funny. She was 6. Twenty-five years. the mom of 11 kids shares how she became the first single woman in the U.S. believed to have adopted internationally. It comes from the Maasai people of Kenya one of the many places that Ms. Margolies has visited through her hands-on, feet-always-moving work with Womens Campaign International. Her dish always has to be full. I knew that it was something I truly wanted to do. "They picked Holly, who was 6. She arrived stubborn, a street kid from Saigon on the sidewalks of the Upper East Side, where Margolies rented an apartment for a time. . Currently, Lee is single. 'I started to look when I was 25,' remembers Margolies, now a reporter with WRC-TV in Washington, D.C. She shuttles between the capital and her home in Philadelphia. ", "She doesn't use up psychological energy on things a lot of us think are indispensable," said longtime Washington friend Nancy Chasen, "like whether your kids' socks match or whether they got a bad haircut. Holly Thi Werth (Margolies) passed away on May 3, 2016, in her home in Boise with her family at her bedside. Still, she was named in several lawsuits and her bankruptcy claim rested on the argument that she was too ignorant of the familys finances to be held responsible for them. Rather, the fallout came after Mezvinsky was charged. It doesnt work all the time, though, and I was sure that I would lose. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. I had some limited name recognition then, she said. 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. ", So it was with the decision to run for Congress. In fact, there probably are few families like Mezvinsky's. "Great interview.". She gave speeches at memorials that made everyone cry and laugh in the same breath. When: On Thursday, January 19, at 11 a.m. Where: Online, for the JCC U at the Kaplen It was fun.". Susan King, WJLA commentator and anchor, recalls meeting Mezvinsky in the 1970s when both were assigned to a stakeout. Absolutely hilarious," Margolies said. "Now this is a beautiful baby," she cooed and segued on to the next voter. "I was shocked to anger," she said. "Then I decided that all these years I'd been saying to my kids: 'You've got to be prepared to lose before you can win. Lee Heh would become her daughter. She, I mean she smoked at 6. Welcome to a day in the life of the Marjorie Margolies Mezvinsky for Congress campaign, where getting elected is hardly the candidate's only worry. Three, her son Marc married Chelsea Clinton. While handing out campaign literature last weekend, he said: "My other mother is Vietnamese and very conservative. She asks a lot. And then we were asked to take this refugee family," Margolies said. "It's a very difficult issue for many people," Mezvinsky said, then suddenly focused in on the woman's chubby, blue-eyed baby. Snares Daley NEW YORK - Lee Heh Margolies, 11-year-old stepdaughter of Rep. Ed Mezvinsky, D-Iowa, Is an accredite. Marjorie Margolies had an incredible career but dreamed of starting a family. She met babysitters who told stories of her cajoling candy from American GIs, and family members who remembered hiding under the bed with an infant Holly as bombs fell on a nearby Army base in Nha Trang. "She was like a mother hen -- but she's too chic to be a mother hen. Still, its better to be safe than sorry. And her staff is on her back to make fund-raising calls. Serving as guardians for this massive brood can be a costly endeavor, she admits,but cares little about the expense. 'When people ask, 'which ones are your real children?' She had campaigned with her husband, Ed, a former Iowa congressman, countless times, but had never thought seriously of running for office -- although she came close during the Thomas hearings. Marjorie Margolies stands at a podium; the presidents seal hangs from it. Then I married. They say, How are the children?, What: Will talk about her new book, among other things. 'Sometimes I feel it's the most selfish thing I've ever done in my entire life,' she says softly. She gave toasts that prompted acquaintances to ask whether she was a stand-up comedian. Margoliess original campaign staffa precocious group that included Amy Walter, now a journalist with the Cook Political Report, and Kenny Baer, who would work in both the Clinton and Obama administrationsalso blurred the line between her private life and her public life. Should a Holocaust documentary have a happy ending? 'And How Are the Children?' | New Jersey Jewish News Margolies became a network correspondent, then got into politics and was elected to Congress and met a man with four daughters of his own. 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. (She was fine, and the case was dismissed.) Margoliess career in electoral politics lasted only one term, but it ended twice. ", "Holly had a very traumatic early childhood," Werth said. Its easy to describe what it feels like to have a conversation with her shes warm, charming, smart, honest, wide-ranging, open, and avowedly Luddite.