| Kate Donnelly | |
|---|---|
| First Lady of Puerto Rico | |
| In office 1977-1984 |
|
| Governor | Carlos Romero Barceló |
| Preceded by | Lila Mayoral |
| Succeeded by | Lila Mayoral |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Long Island, New York |
| Spouse(s) | Carlos Romero Barceló |
| Children | Juan Carlos Melinda |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Kate Donnelly is the wife of former Governor of Puerto Rico Carlos Romero Barceló, and served as First Lady from 1977 to 1984.[1] Prior to that, she served for eight years (1969 to 1976) as First Lady of San Juan, Puerto Rico's capital city.
Donnelly was born in Long Island, New York, but moved to Puerto Rico in the early 1960s to work with Citibank. She met Carlos Romero Barceló, who was a young attorney at the time. They had two children, Juan Carlos and Melinda.
During her years as First Lady of San Juan she kept a relatively low profile, due in part to the fact that she was raising her two small children, as well as giving support to her husband's two sons from his previous marriage. She did exert pressure to save Borinquen Park, one of the few remaining windows to the sea in the Condado area of San Juan. By the 1976 gubernatorial campaign she began a more active role in her husband's bid for governorship.
As First Lady, she assumed an active role on many issues, including providing support to the widows of policemen killed in the line of duty. She wrote a cookbook with her favorite recipes, "Cocinando desde La Fortaleza", the proceeds of which were donated entirely to charity. She also became active in the rights of the disabled, becoming one of the few First Ladies to ever testify at the Puerto Rico Legislative Assembly when she lobbied in favor of approval of a bill regarding the removal of architectural barriers affecting the physically handicapped, a bill suggested by architect George McClintock and filed by then-House Consumer Affairs chair Jorge Navarro Alicea.
Other issues that attracted Donnelly's attention were environmental conservation, the arts, children's causes, education and historic preservation.
After leaving the Governor's Mansion, she began assuming roles independent of her role as spouse of an active politician, serving as a member of the board of the San Juan Arts League and in 1999 was appointed as one of three Trustees of the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico, a Congressionally created trust that owns and manages several of Puerto Rico's most valuable environmentally sensitive areas. The Secretary of the Interior, Gale Norton, and Governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá appointed her to a second term in 2005, joined by recent appointees Loren Ferré Rangel and Mack Mattingly. She is also a member of the board of the San Juan Art Students League.
|
||||||||||