First female VP candidate Ferraro dies at 75

Obituaries

Geraldine Ferraro, who in 1984 became the first woman to run for vice president on a major party ticket, died Saturday, March 26, 2011 at the age of 75.

Former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro died at the age of 75 on Saturday, March, 26, 2011 at Massachusetts General Hospital. She was being treated for blood cancer at the time. Ferraro died just before 10 a.m.

Ferraro was born in Newburgh, N.Y., on Aug. 26, 1935. She later became a teacher, a lawyer and then a member of the U.S. House of Representatives before becoming the first female to run for vice president in 1984.

Geraldine Ferraro gives the thumbs-up sign to a crowd of supporters in downtown Jackson, Miss., as she and Walter Mondale kicked off their 1984 Democratic presidential campaign. Behind Ferraro are Mondale, state Rep. Robert Clark and former Gov. William Winter. On this day Ferraro also kicked off the first campaign in history for a woman running for U.S. vice president on a major party ticket.

Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale, center, and his running mate Geraldine Ferraro, right, wave from the podium at the conclusion of the final session of the Democratic National Convention in 1984. Ferraro and Mondale were ultimately beat, with Reagan winning 49 of the 50 states, the largest landslide since Franklin D. Roosevelt's first re-election, in 1936 over Alf Landon.

Geraldine Ferraro addresses the Young Lawyers Division of the Philadelphia Bar Association in this 1984 file photo during a campaign tour.

In this 1984 file photo, then Vice President George H.W. Bush shakes hands with Geraldine Ferraro before the beginning of their vice presidential candidate debate in Philadelphia.

In this 2008 file photo, former vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro holds her hand up and turns away as she tells a reporter she does not want to talk about her involvement in then Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign. Ferraro, a supporter of Clinton, had come under fire for suggesting Barack Obama received special considerations in his bid for the White House because of his race.

Ferraro revealed in 2001 that she had been diagnosed with blood cancer, the disease that ultimately took her life. She said before a Senate panel later that month that she hoped to live long enough "to attend the inauguration of the first woman president of the United States."

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Former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro died at the age of 75 on Saturday, March, 26, 2011 at Massachusetts General Hospital. She was being treated for blood cancer at the time. Ferraro died just before 10 a.m.

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