Her dish always has to be full. The adoption agencies basically said no. Marjorie Margolies had an incredible career but dreamed of starting a family. Holly, a half-Vietnamese, half-American child, was a street child. Some days it's her personal life that enhances her professional one: Not long ago, on a campaign visit to a 4-H Club fair in Creamery, Pa., Mezvinsky found herself in a goat-milking contest with a slew of male politicians. the mom of 11 kids shares how she became the first single woman in the U.S. believed to have adopted internationally. ", "I had done all these stories on hard-to-place kids, and I thought, 'Hmm, thats something that I could do.' Leah Margulies - Project Director - LawHelp.org/NY | LinkedIn "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. Simon van Zuylen-Wood is a reporter forPhiladelphia magazine. | Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo. A household of 15 kept things interesting. But Mezvinsky hopes the desire to reject career politicians is more powerful than that, and she has won the endorsements of all three major daily newspapers in the district. I called him [Bill] when I was thinking about running, and I told him what was happening and he was very warm and very embracing., Finally, she relents a bit and, adopting Bills accent, mimics his reaction to the news: I love this! she drawls. (Since her vote, John McCains thumbs-down on the Senates last-ditch attempt to kill Obamacare in 2018 has been added to that list. Holly didn't talk much to Werth about her childhood in Saigon, he said. 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. ", Andrew, also interviewed while campaigning, said he did not expect to be lonely for his mother if she has to spend most of the week in Washington: "There's always someone there {at the house}. Holly Thi Werth was never without words. The personal which she got to in part through the professional is that she is the mother of 11 children. Kait Hanson is a lifestyle reporter for TODAY. Currently, five of the children are in college, one attends a conservatory in France, and four others are in private schools. "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. Ms. Margolies runs with her two young daughters. I realized the challenges. 38 Brown Street / Box 1920 Providence RI 02912 401 863-2453 Fax 863-1650 News_Service@brown.edu Contact Brunoniana From Martha Mitchell's Encyclopedia Brunoniana: Olney-Margolies Athletic Center The Olney-Margolies Athletic Center was dedicated on October 31, 1981. She shares her role as a proud grandparent with former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Lee Heh came from Korea, and her adjustment was seamless. She was 48 and the mother of two boys whom she cherished, Jude and Trent Werth. The bureaucratic part of it wasn't easy. She had lost her bid for lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania in 1998 and was in the midst of a run for Rick Santorums Senate seat when her husband, Edward Mezvinksy, a former congressman who represented Iowa in the 1970s, declared bankruptcy. Holly. Which makes tapping into Clintonworld for campaign help all the more intuitive for her. "Were there any redeeming qualities? She gave speeches at memorials that made everyone cry and laugh in the same breath. And shes so successful. Northern New Jerseys Jewish Voice Since 1931, Get The Jewish Standard Newsletter by email and never miss our top stories, www.jccotp.org/ programs/lectures-learning, Israel Story looks at the countrys founding document in Teaneck program. It was terrific, she said. It was sort of like that was the final affirmation that you know there couldnt have been truly heartfelt, deep personal relationships., Dating back to the time Margolies invited him and his wife to Renaissance Weekend for the first time, the lawsuit confirmed his nagging feeling that everything she did was driven by political calculation. And over the summer, she threw a huge wedding with 14 bridesmaids for daughter Lee Heh Margolies, 28. In this vein, the harshest indictment of Marjorie I hear comes from Mezvinskys former doctor Brad Fenton. Margolies was sitting in the audience and exchanged hellos with Clinton at the event. Whats it like being the son ofa major league baseball player? And she would seemingly do something for you, but then call in the obligation at another time. The honoree? And she was very, very funny. I felt the budget cuts didnt go far enough, she wrote in her 1994 book A Womans Place: The Freshmen Women Who Changed the Face of Congress. Margolies, not unlike Bill Clinton, seems unable to separatethe personal from the political. I agree with nothing else that she believes in, but good for her, she said about the former House Republican from Wyomings work on the January 6 committee. The Clinton-in-Law - POLITICO Magazine Sign Up Timeless Lessons from the Frontlines of Motherhood., Get The Jewish Standard Newsletter by email and never miss our top stories She was my most naughty child. The first single US woman to adopt internationally shares her inspiring Leleith Hodges (born 22 June 1953) is a Jamaican former track and field sprinter who competed mainly in the 100 metres.She was one of Jamaica's most prominent female runners of the 1970s. I signed his ketubah. Then, three years later in Vietnam, serendipity when Margolies ran into people from the same adoption agency. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. 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. Leo Margulies - Wikipedia Me. 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. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. "I didnt know if and when I would marry. Snares Daley NEW YORK - Lee Heh Margolies, 11-year-old stepdaughter of Rep. Ed Mezvinsky, D-Iowa, Is an accredite. Should a Holocaust documentary have a happy ending? Her mother, Mildred Margolies, 81, of Philadelphia, remembers always worrying that her daughter was doing too much. We just lost a lot of stuff.' 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. I dont know if theres a lot of giveback.. "I started to do a series on Korean orphans adopted in this area," she said. "If I'm elected, it'll be because I'm different and people want me to be different for them," said Mezvinsky. First Lady Hillary Clinton chaired the American delegation, and Marjorie Margolies was named. All of a sudden, I kind of turned around and said 'there's got to be more to life.' We thank our board members for their support. How to register: Go to www.jccotp.org/ programs/lectures-learningor call the JCC at (201) 569-7900. But Mr. Chelsea himself, Goldberg says, views it as a serious political liability. She spent a long time looking into adoption in Korea; literally, as I was ready to leave, they said, We have picked a little girl for you. 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. "So sweet.". Her TV series, airing on NBC stations Christmas week, 'Finding Your Home, Discovering Your Heart', traces Lee Heh's return to Korea with Margolies to discover the child's roots.'. Above, Hillary, Chelsea and Marc in November. 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. Fenton and his wife were close family friends who often watched over Margoliess son Andrew when she and Ed were away. What appeared as a full plate for the intrepid reporter and single mom of two young girls was just the beginning of Margolies' story. Village View: Marjorie Margolies' latest effort is a guidebook for They say, How are the children?, What: Will talk about her new book, among other things. 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. The presence of the Clintons may just amplify inevitable charges of carpetbaggery from Boyle and her other opponents. (Shed been a no until he convinced her to change her mind. (All photos courtesy Marjorie Margolies). She gave toasts that prompted acquaintances to ask whether she was a stand-up comedian. There is such a nice spirit here; sometimes maniacal.'. She tried to get up and leave with them sometimes, even toward the end. Lee Heh, docile and eager to . I finally found a group in Oregon that didn't say yes, but they didn't say no. 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. Needed: more than love and patience; They Came To Stay She made you feel incredibly lazy. It was fun.". 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.). "She was like a mother hen -- but she's too chic to be a mother hen. I realized the challenges.". ", Vietnamese-born Vu Pham, 17, who was 5 when he and his family moved in, refers to Mezvinsky as "my other mother." "They picked Holly, who was 6. She appeared three times at the Summer Olympics (1972, 1976, 1980) and three times at the Commonwealth Games (1974, 1978, 1982). In 1970, Margolies was a TV reporter when an assignment took her to Korea for. Babka in Israel, part 4 relax, its the last part! My husband gets a raise and we have to give it back in health care costs. And I met this little girl who shook my hand and said 'how do you do'.'. Holly Thi Werth met her husband, Doug, when a job with a software company took her to Idaho. The. Margolies follows this remark by insisting that she doesnt know whether Hillary is running for president, before concluding with an anecdote about the time Albright busted a move with a younger guy at Marc and Chelseas wedding. Mezvinsky's is definitely one of the more unusual. Ms. Margolies was born in Philadelphia in 1942; she and her family moved to suburban Baltimore for her fathers job when she was 8. Today, Margolies spends as much time as she can with her 21 grandchildren. Mezvinsky says afterward. "See what I mean?" 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. Then I married. "Theres just nothing like losing a child," Margolies said. 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. the mom of 11 kids shares how she became the first single woman in the U.S. believed to have adopted internationally. Essex women pool resources to make an 'Impact' - North Jersey Media Group And she was just impossible. She made jokes that had half the room gasping in shock, the other half gasping with laughter. Marjorie Margolies: Roe Decision May Make 2022 Another 'Year of the That election night, Id only written a concession speech. I'm pretty independent, I guess. "I got myself to the point that I was not going to feel guilty, being at work and not being with the kids, or being with the kids and not being at work," she said. ', 'But my overwhelming feeling is that it has been so satisfying, and the kids are so wonderful. Her consistent response to questions asked by her creditors about the disposition of her assets is lack of knowledge or my husband handled it, a mantra that is completely at odds with her public persona, background, and accomplishments, the judge wrote. 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 . delphia, where her father retired as a purchasing agent for the RCA Corporation. At 6:30 p.m. on Halloween night, Marjorie Margoliess black SUV pulls up to a handsome colonial in the Philadelphia suburbs where a campaign fundraiser is being held in her honor. She was working as an occasional correspondent for four NBC programs, including "Today." Both girls have paid visits to their respective countries of origin as adult women. 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. Doug Werth said Holly didn't talk much about her childhood in Saigon. She made jokes that had half the room gasping in shock, the other half gasping with laughter. And her staff is on her back to make fund-raising calls. Within a few minutes she changed her mind, walked onto the House floor and cast her vote to Republican jeers of Bye-bye, Margie! The Greek chorus proved prescient: Her right-leaning district deemed the budget too heavy on the taxes and too soft on the cuts. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. In 1976, she wrote a book on her two daughters, 'They Came To Stay'. Her career ended for a second time in 2000. She became pals with Katie Couric and Gloria Steinem. Her. Through it all, Margolies never gave up her professional pursuits. She went to Brown, shes married; she has three kids. Its unclear who decided to keep the black sheep out of view, but its probably safe to assume the Clintons werent altogether displeased. What she did next changed history. If that last fact isnt immediately obvious to everyone attending the fundraiser, it will quickly become so. And other tales of the war between Ukraine and Russia and of Russias new overlord, China, Call the doctor! Rumors of romance followed. He is a member of the House Judiciary and Government Operations Committees and serves on the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee. I hope she wins.". Margolies said her late daughter "was amazing" and left an incredible legacy, including two children. In 1975, she married Congressman Ed Mezvinsky, who had four daughters of his own. 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. 'And How Are the Children?' | The Jewish Standard Indeed, if you scroll through her campaign donations, youll find that most of them come from tony suburbs like Bryn Mawr and Bala Cynwyd that are still located in her old districtnot middle- and working-class Northeast Philadelphia, which now comprises more than half of the new seat. I dont know, Margolies says, when I put it to her, over hors doeuvres at a restaurant before the Albright fundraiser. Free Sign Up, Ms. Margolies will talk about that book and of course about her life, as well as her work on Zoom for the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades in Tenafly on January 19. Lee Heh could get only a student visa, and she was the youngest student ever to get one. Eventually, the adoption went through. First single US woman to adopt internationally shares her journey. Her career as an activist was just getting started, though. Three years later, Margolies drew on that experience to found Womens Campaign International, a globe-trotting nonprofit she still leads today. "Middle-income people are getting screwed royally," Keane said. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. She's so modern. The bride, formerly on the NBC News staff here, is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Margolies of Phila. Especially in our out-of-control entitlements programs. Then the president called. And I told him, Your first born.. PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - As we count down to Mother's Day, an incredible story about one woman's journey to become a mother. It's just so gratifying,' she says. When she still was a reporter, Ms. Margolies did a series of stories on international adoption. Marjorie Margolies: 1st Single US Woman To Adopt Internationally - Today Seven-year-old Lee Heh Kyung was a parent's dream of loving and intelligent cooperation--so much so that the few ripples on the surface (her fear of speaking Korean, her worry about her Oriental eyes) were perhaps too easily smoothed over. Former US Rep. reveals was first single woman to adopt internationally And Ed adored her. The most revealing Margolies-Clinton episode may have taken place at Marc and Chelseas 2010 wedding. "So we had six girls and we got married and then we had two boys. Lee Heh arrived from Korea in 1970 and was joined four years later by Holly from Vietnam. 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. California's road to recovery runs through D.C. Republicans, Why New Jerseys ventilator guidelines may favor younger, whiter patients, Rhode Island ends specific restrictions on New Yorkers by making them national. My dad was tikkun-ish, she said. Serving as guardians for this massive brood can be a costly endeavor, she admits,but cares little about the expense. Herbert and Mildred's daughter.". Smukler dismissed the episode For the Clintons and this campaign, its never going to be enough for some people, he said. "As much as some of us wish she did, the other sides of her make up for it. I gave birth to two boys. 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. When he thought it would help, a federal prosecutor toldthe New York Times, he would call and say, Im spending the weekend with the Clintons., Perhaps with this in mind, Margolies suddenly turns press-shy when asked too many questions about her personal rapport with the Clintons. The other day, Facebook reminded me that this new generation of humans will never know the joys of having two keys for your car. At 50, she looks more like someone's daughter than someone's mother, which is odd, because she is the mother, stepmother and legal guardian of 11 children, ages 10 to 28 -- a family she began building at age 28 when she became the first single American woman to adopt a foreign child. One was to impeach Andrew Johnson; the other had to do with the draft, in the 1940s. A friend from Eugene, Oregon, who worked with an adoption agency there bumped into Ms. Margolies while she was working on a story in Vietnam. There was anger there, still, and fear. I'm not getting anywhere." We are excited to see their ideas brought to life! Earlier this month, in hospice care, at the end of a long battle with cervical cancer, she found words when no one else could. (See below.). 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. Slowly, Holly adjusted. Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, former United States Representative from Pennsylvania, political organization worker. (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!) And although she has gamely begun to Etch-a-Sketchshe told me President Obamas $800 billion stimulus wasnt big enough, a stark contrast to her no vote on Clintons $16 billion version in 1993it might yet be her tony Main Line persona that does her in. Holly Thi Werth (Margolies) passed away on May 3, 2016, in her home in Boise with her family at her bedside. I'm the outsider. She gave speeches at memorials that made everyone cry and laugh in the same breath. Encyclopedia Brunoniana | Olney-Margolies Athletic Center She is passing the torch to the new Co-Chairs Risha Walden and Sunanda Sharma, featured here at their on-boarding lunch meeting. After briefly attending Columbia University, Margulies began working for Munsey's Magazine, selling subsidiary rights to its stories. It all began when Marjorie Margolies got a reporting assignment in Korea. So, Ms. Margolies, you must have a big house, right? She was also a fiscal hawk representing Philadelphias moneyed suburbs; prior to her election, her district had gone Republican every year since 1916. JCC on the Palisades in Tenafly, How much: $12 for JCC members; $15 for nonmembers. In 1995, Margolies was selected as the director of the U.S. delegation to the U.N. Conference on Human Rights in Beijing, where Hillary Clinton gave her famous womens rights are human rights speech. "Sometimes, it was political. Holly Werth Obituary (1967 - 2016) - Boise, ID - Idaho Statesman The main reason for Babkas trip to Israel was to meet Danish. 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. The lease is up this weekend on the king-size rental where she and her household of 12 moved in the meantime, and they have nowhere to go. Two leaders of Pennsylvania's Montgomery County Democratic Committee approached Mezvinsky early this year. Last night I came back to the house after being away on a story, and my 18-year-old started to yell, 'Mommy's home', and the younger ones followed suit and then the 3-year-old started shouting, as they all ran down the stairs. In 1992, she ran for Congress, and won, serving for two years as a congresswoman from Pennsylvania. NARBERTH, PA. -- Marjorie Margolies Mezvinsky has a few things on her mind. Her first career for 24 or so years was as a broadcast journalist; a fellowship from CBS, when she was just a few years in, helped fuel her rise. People like comeback stories., Her son Marc apparently disagrees. "She was always doing three things at once. The reason thats funny is that one of her sons, Marc Mezvinsky, is married to Bill and Hillary Clintons only child, Chelsea Clinton. I had some limited name recognition then, she said. 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 . After Holly died, Margolies, tying up loose ends, called the hospice service that had cared for her daughter in her last days. How many other female Democratic candidates who stood on the podium at the Democratic Convention were seized with this thought: "I thought about what Barbara Jordan had said the night before, invoking Thomas Jefferson and talking about women being in the halls and councils of power. She is a slip of a woman with a short wedge of black hair -- a contrast to the waist-length tresses that were her trademark on television in the 1970s -- who alternates between Albert Nipon suits and dungarees on the campaign trail. Son #3 and I decided to take a cab to Rechaviah, a Jerusalem neighborhood vastly different from the one where my Son #2 and DIL #2 live. 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. But at some level, she has always done it this way. "Holly was our favorite patient," the nurse told Margolies. She was kind, the nurse said. If I have problems with her, I go to Margie. 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. Holly Thi Werth (Margolies) passed away on May 3, 2016, in her home in Boise with her family at her bedside. "I'm trying to raise two children, and {pay for} school and clothes. She was a really good pickpocket, and she smoked. She was born Ho Thi Thu Nga in Nha Trang, Vietnam, to a Vietnamese woman and an American serviceman. "I had done lots of stories on hard-to-place kids," Margolies said - kids from war zones, kids who had grown up on the streets. And she was hilarious. Her highest honours came with the women's 4100 m relay team, with which was a . Succeed2gether has an active board which meets every few months to discuss aims and progress for the year. In 1970, Margolies was a TV reporter when an assignment took her to Korea for. One morning, Holly called Margolies out of the blue. She loved being a journalist and to be fair, it loved her back. 'As I was getting ready to leave Korea, they said, 'we've picked a little girl for you.' Her greatest feat of Rolodex-padding, though, might have been losing her re-election in 1994. When we had the fire, everyone came home for the weekend and all of a sudden we realized, 'Everyone is still here. Currently, Lee is single. She then adopted a half-American, half-Vietnamese child, Holly, now 18. She has not attempted to hide her liberal Democratic leanings in a 2-1 Republican district. Two, her now-ex husband went to jail for running a Ponzi scheme. I had Tenafly man revisits his fathers work with Ethiopian Jews in new film, Debut symphony will honor Chiune Sugihara, a savior of Jews, Tenafly attorney, founder of camp for burn victims in Israel, tells of young lives transformed, Teen groups international president is from Greater Jersey Hudson River region, Bob Nesoff writes about his friend Ron Blomberg, Daughter of survivors brings Holocaust obligation to TABC students, Amazon Prime doc details the wild life of Jewish gangster Myron Sugerman, Mourning the Dees incorporeality and heaviness, Camp to college: How Jewish camp prepares children for college and life. She tried to rest after a life spent on the go. "Holly was impossible," Margolies shared. A couple hours before the vote, she had appeared live on Philadelphia television to explain her opposition to the bill. When she filed for bankruptcy, a judge rejected her assertion of ignorance in a scathing decision that, depending on how you read it, either calls her feminism into question or suggests she knows more than shes letting on. She is the former Marjorie Margolies, Emmy Award-winning correspondent for WRC-TV from 1975 until 1990, more recently of the "Today" show. Mezvinsky never asked Fenton to invest, and Fenton does not suspect Margolies was involved in his schemes.