Katharine "Kitty" Dukakis (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Dickson; born December 26, 1936) is an American author. She is the wife of former

Massachusetts governor The governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the chief executive officer of the government of Massachusetts. The governor is the head of the state cabinet and the commander-in-chief of the commonwealth's military forces. Massachusetts ...

Michael Dukakis Michael Stanley Dukakis (; born November 3, 1933) is an American retired lawyer and politician who served as governor of Massachusetts from 1975 to 1979 and again from 1983 to 1991. He is the longest-serving governor in Massachusetts history ...

Life and career

Dukakis was born Katharine Virginia Dickson in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

, the daughter of Jane (née Goldberg) and Harry Ellis Dickson. Her paternal grandparents were Russian Jews; her mother was born to an

Irish Catholic Irish Catholics are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland whose members are both Catholic and Irish. They have a large diaspora, which includes over 36 million American citizens and over 14 million British citizens (a quarter of the Briti ...

father and a Hungarian Jewish mother, and had been adopted by a family of German Jewish descent. Her father was a member of the first violin section of the

Boston Symphony Orchestra The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the " Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in 18 ...

for 49 years and also served as Associate Conductor of the

Boston Pops Orchestra The Boston Pops Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, specializing in light classical and popular music. The orchestra's current music director is Keith Lockhart. Founded in 1885 as an offshoot of the Boston Symp ...

. She graduated from

Brookline High School Brookline High School is a four-year public high school in the town of Brookline, Massachusetts. It is a part of Public Schools of Brookline. The Headmaster is Anthony Meyer who holds a Master of Education in Teaching and Curriculum from Harvard ...

in 1954 and attended

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a public state-related land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvania. Founded in 1855 as the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania, Penn State becam ...

. She dropped out of college in 1956 and married John Chaffetz in 1957. They had one son,

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...

. After four years and several moves the marriage ended in divorce, and she returned to Cambridge. Her former husband later remarried and had a son,

Jason Chaffetz Jason E. Chaffetz (; born March 26, 1967) is an American retired politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 2009 until his resignation in 2017. He chaired the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform from 2015 until 2017. Ch ...

, who was a Republican Congressman from Utah. Kitty received her B.A. from

Lesley College Lesley University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education. As of 2018-19 Lesley University enrolled 6,593 students (2,707 undergraduate and 3,886 graduate). History ...

in 1963, the same year she married

. She received a M.A. degree from

Boston University College of Communication __NOTOC__ Boston University College of Communication (COM) is a communication school at Boston University. It was founded in 1947 as the School of Public Relations. The College of Communication is the oldest public relations school in the United ...

in 1982. During the 1988 presidential election, several false rumors were reported in the media about the Dukakises, including the claim by

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Monta ...

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

Senator

Steve Symms Steven Douglas Symms (born April 23, 1938) is an American politician and lobbyist who served as a four-term congressman (1973–81) and two-term U.S. Senator (1981–93), representing Idaho. He is a partner at Parry, Romani, DeConcini & Symms, a ...

that Kitty had burned an

American flag The national flag of the United States of America, often referred to as the ''American flag'' or the ''U.S. flag'', consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the ca ...

to protest the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. Republican strategist

Lee Atwater Harvey LeRoy "Lee" Atwater (February 27, 1951 – March 29, 1991) was an American political consultant and strategist for the Republican Party. He was an adviser to US presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush and chairman of the Repub ...

was accused of having initiated these rumors. In 1989, Dukakis was briefly hospitalized after drinking

rubbing alcohol Rubbing alcohol is either an isopropyl alcohol or an ethanol-based liquid, with isopropyl alcohol products being the most widely available. The comparable ''British Pharmacopoeia'' (''BP'') is surgical spirit. Rubbing alcohol is denatured and un ...

. In 1991, Dukakis published her memoir, ''Now You Know'', in which she candidly discussed her ongoing battle with

alcoholism Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomi ...

. 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 The Boston University School of Social Work (SSW), located in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the 16 graduate schools of Boston University. Areas of study BUSSW offers full and part-time programs leading to the Master of Social Work degree, with m ...

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 Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a psychiatric treatment where a generalized seizure (without muscular convulsions) is electrically induced to manage refractory mental disorders.Rudorfer, MV, Henry, ME, Sackeim, HA (2003)"Electroconvulsive th ...

treatment beginning in 2001 in order to treat

major depression Major depressive disorder (MDD), also known as clinical depression, is a mental disorder characterized by at least two weeks of pervasive low mood, low self-esteem, and loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities. Introdu ...

. Dukakis is a leading proponent of using ECT to treat depression. In 2007, the Lemuel Shattuck Hospital in

Jamaica Plain Jamaica Plain is a neighborhood of in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Settled by Puritans seeking farmland to the south, it was originally part of the former Town of Roxbury, now also a part of the City of Boston. The commun ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

, opened a center for addiction treatment named after Dukakis. Dukakis appears in the 2008 documentary on Lee Atwater, '' Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story''.

Published works

* * Cowritten with

Larry Tye Larry Tye is an American non-fiction author and journalist known for his biographies of notable Americans including Edward Bernays (1999) Satchel Paige (2009), Robert F. Kennedy (2016) and Joseph McCarthy (2020). From 1986 to 2001, Tye was a rep ...

Public service

Dukakis has served on the President's Commission on the Holocaust, on the

United States Holocaust Memorial The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust hist ...

Council, on the board of the Refugee Policy Center, and on the Task Force on Cambodian Children.

References

External links

"Appointment of Katharine D. Dukakis as a Member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council 1989-12-19"
George Bush Presidential Library and Museum, College Station, Texas. A short profile of her education and career * Dukakis, Kitty; Tye, Larry
'I Feel Good, I Feel Alive'
''Newsweek'', September 18, 2006. An article in which she discusses her treatment with electroconvulsive therapy for depression {{DEFAULTSORT:Dukakis, Kitty 1936 births First Ladies and Gentlemen of Massachusetts American memoirists Boston University College of Communication alumni Living people Writers from Cambridge, Massachusetts American people of Russian-Jewish descent American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent American people of Irish descent Lesley University alumni Dukakis family Massachusetts Democrats Boston University School of Social Work alumni