Jane Muskie

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Jane Gray Muskie (February 12, 1927 – December 25, 2004) was the widow of U.S. senator and 1968 vice presidential candidate Edmund Muskie, whose 1972 presidential campaign collapsed after he emotionally defended Mrs. Muskie following scathing criticism from an editorial in the conservative Manchester Union-Leader newspaper. The editorial alleged that Mrs. Muskie enjoyed excessive drinking and telling dirty jokes. An emotional Edmund Muskie defended his wife outside the newspaper's offices in the cold New Hampshire winter. Senator Muskie appeared to cry, but he later claimed that melted snowflakes, not tears, were streaming down his face. (See also: Canuck Letter.)

After Edmund Muskie died in 1996, Jane Muskie retreated to private life. She died quietly at her home in Bethesda, Maryland, on Christmas Day, 2004, after a bout with Alzheimer's Disease.