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Kitty Dukakis

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Kitty Dukakis
Dukakis in 2015
First Lady of Massachusetts
In role
January 6, 1983 – January 3, 1991
Preceded byJosephine King
Succeeded bySusan Weld
In role
January 2, 1975 – January 4, 1979
Preceded byJessie Sargent
Succeeded byJosephine King
Personal details
Born
Katharine Dickson

(1936-12-26) December 26, 1936 (age 87)
Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Spouses
John Chaffetz
​
​
(m. 1956; div. 1960)​
​
(m. 1963)​
Children4, including John

Katharine "Kitty" Dukakis (née Dickson; born December 26, 1936) is an American author. She is married to former Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis.

Life and career

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Kitty Dickson, a student at Brookline High School (1954)

Dukakis was born Katharine Virginia Dickson in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the daughter of Jane (née Goldberg) and Harry Ellis Dickson.[1] Her paternal grandparents were Russian Jews; her mother was born to an Irish Catholic father and a Hungarian Jewish mother, and had been adopted by a family of German Jewish descent.[2][3][4][5] Her father was a member of the first violin section of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 49 years and also served as Associate Conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra.[6]

She graduated from Brookline High School in 1954 and attended Pennsylvania State University. She dropped out of college in 1956 and married John Chaffetz in 1957.[1][7] They had one son, John. After four years and several moves the marriage ended in divorce, and she returned to Cambridge.[8] Her former husband later remarried and had a son, Jason Chaffetz, who was a Republican Congressman from Utah. Kitty received her B.A. from Lesley College in 1963, the same year she married Michael Dukakis.[9] She received a M.A. degree from Boston University College of Communication in 1982.

Dukakis and her husband, 1987

During the 1988 presidential election, several false rumors were reported in the media about the Dukakises, including the claim by Idaho Republican Senator Steve Symms that Kitty had burned an American flag to protest the Vietnam War.[10] Republican strategist Lee Atwater was accused of having initiated these rumors.[11]

In 1989, Dukakis was briefly hospitalized after drinking rubbing alcohol.[12] In 1991, Dukakis published her memoir, Now You Know, in which she candidly discussed her ongoing battle with alcoholism. The book also discussed the pressures of being a political wife and her disappointment over her husband's defeat in the 1988 election. In the mid-1990s, Dukakis graduated from the Boston University School of Social Work with a master's degree in social work, successfully performing her practicum at Charles River Hospital in Wellesley, Massachusetts. In 2006, her book Shock revealed that she had undergone electroconvulsive therapy treatment beginning in 2001 in order to treat major depression. Dukakis is a leading proponent of using ECT to treat depression.[13]

Dukakis with her husband in 2012

In 2007, the Lemuel Shattuck Hospital in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, opened a center for addiction treatment named after Dukakis.[14]

Dukakis appears in the 2008 documentary on Lee Atwater, Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story.

Published works

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  • Now You Know. Simon & Schuster. 1991. ISBN 0-671-74179-9.
  • Shock: The Healing Power of Electroconvulsive Therapy. Avery. 2006. ISBN 1-58333-265-0. Cowritten with Larry Tye.

Public service

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Dukakis has served on the President's Commission on the Holocaust, on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, on the board of the Refugee Policy Center, and on the Task Force on Cambodian Children.

References

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  1. ^ a b Kenney, Charles; Turner, Robert L. (1988). Dukakis: An American Odyssey. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. pp. 54–55. ISBN 978-0-395-47089-3.
  2. ^ Ann Egerton (October 21, 1990). "Kitty Dukakis' memoir has a sad and ragged quality". Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on September 25, 2012. Retrieved May 27, 2016.
  3. ^ "Michael, Kitty Dukakis help new citizens celebrate in Woburn". Archived from the original on January 10, 2014. Retrieved January 13, 2017.
  4. ^ Drogin, Bob (May 25, 1987). "Dukakis Draws Heavy Crowds, Money, Press". Los Angeles Times.
  5. ^ "Archives - Philly.com". Archived from the original on May 15, 2012. Retrieved January 13, 2017.
  6. ^ Midgette, Anne (April 2, 2003). "Harry Ellis Dickson, 94, Violinist and Conductor in Boston". Retrieved January 13, 2017 – via NYTimes.com.
  7. ^ "Chaffetz-Dickson". The Philadelphia Inquirer. March 31, 1957. Retrieved August 9, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ Warner, Margaret Garrard (May 16, 1988). "Take-Charge Kitty". Newsweek. Vol. 111, no. 20. pp. 30–31.
  9. ^ "Kitty Dukakis stylish half of political team". Milwaukee Sentinel. AP. May 27, 1988. Retrieved August 29, 2012.[permanent dead link‍]
  10. ^ "Story on Mrs. Dukakis Is Denied by Campaign". New York Times. August 26, 1988. Retrieved May 27, 2016. Michael Dukakis's Presidential campaign, responding to comments by Senator Steve Symms, an Idaho Republican, issued a statement Wednesday saying any suggestion that Kitty Dukakis had ever burned an American flag was totally false and beneath contempt.
  11. ^ Susan Estrich (September 4, 2004). "Lies move Democrats to dig up dirt". Myrtle Beach Sun. Archived from the original on September 17, 2004. Retrieved May 27, 2016. Or how about the one about Kitty Dukakis burning a flag at an anti-war demonstration, another out-and-out lie, which the Bush campaign denied having anything to do with, except that it turned out to have come from a United States senator via the Republican National Committee? Atwater later apologized to me for that, too, on his deathbed.
  12. ^ "Kitty Dukakis Recovering". The New York Times. Associated Press. November 11, 1989. Retrieved October 11, 2007.
  13. ^ Seelye, Katharine Q. (December 31, 2016). "Kitty Dukakis, a Beneficiary of Electroshock Therapy, Emerges as Its Evangelist". The New York Times. Retrieved December 31, 2016.
  14. ^ "Kitty Dukakis Treatment Center to Open". Boston University School of Public Health. September 21, 2007. Archived from the original on October 16, 2007. Retrieved October 11, 2007.
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kitty Dukakis.
Honorary titles
Preceded by
Jessie Sargent
 First Lady of Massachusetts
1975–1979 		Succeeded by
Josephine King
Preceded by
Josephine King
 First Lady of Massachusetts
1983–1991 		Succeeded by
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