‘Happy’ Rockefeller, widow of former vice president, dies

Margaretta “Happy” Rockefeller, the widow of former U.S. Vice President and New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller and one of the first women to speak publicly about her breast cancer in the 1970s, has died. She was 88.

Happy Rockefeller, who earned her nickname as a child because of her pleasant personality, died Tuesday at her home in Tarrytown, New York.

She had suffered from a brief illness.

Both she and the New York governor were divorced when they married in 1963. That was seen as scandalous at the time, and political pundits blamed the marriage for Nelson Rockefeller’s failure to secure the 1964 Republican presidential nomination.

At that time, no divorced candidate had ever won the presidency.

After her husband served four terms as New York’s governor, he was named by President Gerald Ford to serve as vice president after Richard Nixon’s resignation in the Watergate scandal in 1974. Shortly after being chosen, Happy Rockefeller was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent two mastectomies. She and Ford’s wife, Betty, were among the first women to speak publicly about the disease.

“She went through it with dignity and was one of the first role models,” said longtime friend Richard Parsons, a senior adviser at Providence Equity Partners.

A well-known socialite for many causes, Happy Rockefeller served as chairman of the board for the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. In 1991, she was appointed as a public delegate to the United Nations by President George H. W. Bush.