Happy Rockefeller
| Happy Rockefeller | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Second Lady of the United States | |
|
In role December 19, 1974 – January 20, 1977 |
|
| President | Gerald Ford |
| Preceded by | Betty Ford (Aug. 1974) |
| Succeeded by | Joan Mondale |
| First Lady of New York | |
|
In role May 4, 1963 – December 18, 1973 |
|
| Governor | Nelson Rockefeller |
| Preceded by | Mary Rockefeller |
| Succeeded by | Katherine Wilson |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Margaretta Large Fitler June 9, 1926 Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | May 19, 2015 (aged 88) Pocantico Hills, New York, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | James Murphy (1945–1963) Nelson Rockefeller (1963–1979) |
| Children | James (with Murphy) Margretta (with Murphy) Carol (with Murphy) Malinda (with Murphy) Mark (with Rockefeller) Nelson (with Rockefeller) |
Margaretta Large Fitler Murphy "Happy" Rockefeller (June 9, 1926 – May 19, 2015) was a philanthropist and the second wife of the 49th Governor of New York and 41st Vice President of the United States, Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (1908–1979). She was First Lady of New York from her marriage to then-Governor Rockefeller in 1963 until he left office in 1973, and Second Lady of the United States from her husband's swearing in as Vice President on December 19, 1974 until his term ended on January 20, 1977.
Margaretta Large Fitler was born at Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, in 1926. Her parents were Margaretta Large Harrison and William Wonderly Fitler Jr., an heir to a cordage fortune. (Later her mother would marry again.) The younger Margaretta was known by her nickname, "Happy", given to her for her childhood disposition. She was a great-great-granddaughter of Union general George Gordon Meade, the commander at the Battle of Gettysburg, and his wife Margaretta Sergeant, daughter of politician John Sergeant.
On December 11, 1949, she married James Slater Murphy, a virologist associated with the Rockefeller Institute and a close friend of Nelson Rockefeller's. They had four children: James B. Murphy, II, Margaretta Harrison Murphy, Carol Slater Murphy, and Malinda Fitler Murphy (1960-2005). Malinda married Francis Menotti, the adopted son of composer Gian Carlo Menotti.
Happy and her husband divorced on April 1, 1963, for reasons The New York Times called "grievous mental anguish" and her former husband's lawyer classified as "irreconcilable differences". One month later – on May 4, 1963 – at the home of Laurance S. Rockefeller in Pocantico Hills, New York, Happy married Governor Nelson Rockefeller, who had taken office in 1959 and was eighteen years her senior. She had worked as a member of his office staff until her resignation in 1961. Nelson divorced his first wife, Mary Todhunter Clark, on March 16, 1962. Happy and Nelson Rockefeller had two sons together: Nelson Rockefeller, Jr. (born 1964), and Mark Rockefeller (born 1967).
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