Jane Gray Muskie, 77, the low-key but strong-willed wife of Edmund S. Muskie, whose 1972 presidential bid fizzled after he appeared to cry at a news conference in which he defended his wife from a negative newspaper editorial, died Dec. 25 at her home in Bethesda. She had Alzheimer's disease.
Mrs. Muskie, a former bookkeeper and model, was a hard-working supporter of her husband's political career as the former lawyer ascended the ranks of the Democratic Party from his start in the Maine legislature.
Jane Muskie campaigned relentlessly for her husband, Edmund. His 1972 presidential campaign never recovered from his choked-up defense of her.
(1995 AP Photo)
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Dressed in the latest fashions, from free-swinging trapeze dresses to formless chemises, she campaigned relentlessly for his successful bid for governor of Maine in 1954 and the U.S. Senate four years later. Mrs. Muskie cheerfully shook hands at rallies, attended civic club luncheons and visited plants and factories.
She was known as an energetic, plain-spoken spouse willing to talk about policy issues when the Manchester Union Leader newspaper reprinted an uncomplimentary Newsweek editorial that said she liked to tell dirty jokes and smoke cigarettes. Then-Sen. Edmund Muskie, who at the time was competing in the 1972 New Hampshire presidential primary, denounced the conservative newspaper.
Standing in a snowstorm outside the newspaper's offices, Edmund Muskie called publisher William Loeb a "gutless coward" for involving his wife in the campaign. Edmund Muskie choked up several times during the speech, and several news organizations reported that he cried, but a dispute has persisted for years over whether he had tears or melted snowflakes on his face.
His campaign never recovered, and then-Sen. George McGovern went on to win the nomination but lose the general election to President Richard Nixon.
Edmund Muskie, who later served as secretary of state under President Jimmy Carter, died of a heart attack in 1996 at 81.
Jane Gray was born in Waterville, Maine. Slim, brown-eyed and attractive, she was voted prettiest girl in her graduating high school class. She was a dress shop employee when she married Edmund Muskie in 1948, two years after he had been elected to Maine's House of Representatives.
When her husband was elected governor, Mrs. Muskie, who was pregnant with their fourth child, suddenly found herself trying to raise a family while keeping pace with a demanding social calendar. At the governor's mansion, she gave county luncheons for 300 to 400 guests as well as tea socials for women, including the wives of appointed officials.
Mrs. Muskie once said she learned to cope with the stress of campaigning through yoga and deep-breathing exercises.
In Washington, she joined an exclusive sisterhood of senators' wives. She later wrote about Washington's behind-the-scene power struggles from the point of view of a political spouse in a novel co-written with her longtime friend Abigail McCarthy, wife of former senator Eugene McCarthy (D-Minn.).
Mrs. Muskie conducted most of the research for the political novel, "One Woman Lost," while McCarthy, a novelist in her own right, wrote the text.
Survivors include five children, Stephen Muskie of Harrisville, N.H., Ellen Allen of Locust Hill, Va., Melinda Stanton of Marshfield, Mass., Martha Muskie of Bethesda and Edmund Muskie Jr. of Chevy Chase; a sister; and eight grandchildren.
