Madeleine Albright, the first woman to be Secretary of State, died on Wednesday from cancer at age 84.
The mother of three served under Democratic President Bill Clinton from 1997 to 2001 and was a longtime diplomat.
‘We are heartbroken to announce that Dr. Madeleine K. Albright, the 64th U.S. Secretary of State and the first woman to hold that position, passed away earlier today. The cause was cancer,’ the family announced.
Albright was born in 1937 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Her family fled to Britain in 1939 to avoid the Nazis and then the United States nearly a decade later, in 1948, to escape the communists’ grip on Czechoslovakia.
She was first selected by Clinton to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations before being promoted to the head of the State Department. She was confirmed unanimously in 1997.
Madeleine Albright, the first woman to be Secretary of State, has died from cancer at age 84
Madeleine Albright photographed in 2019 and in 1945
The mother of three served under President Bill Clinton from 1997 to 2001 and was a longtime diplomat. She is pictured with Clinton towards the end of his administration
A photo of President Bill Clinton (center) and his Cabinet from 1994 shows then Ambassador to the United Nations Madeleine Albright (left)
Madeleine Albright (left) as a child with her father Josef Korbel (right)
Albright was a member of the National Security Countil and pushed for NATO expansion eastward into the former Soviet bloc.
She helped lead the NATO bombing campaign in 1999 to halt ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.
Albright’s experience as a refugee prompted her to push for the United States to be a superpower that used that clout.
She wanted a ‘muscular internationalism,’ said James O’Brien, a senior adviser to Albright during the Bosnian war.
She once upset a Pentagon chief by asking why the military maintained more than 1 million men and women under arms if they never used them.
Throughout her career, she was known for her zingers.
She once said, ‘This is not cojones, this is cowardice,’ – the Spanish word for ‘testicles,’ after a 1996 incident when Cuban jet fighres down two unarmed U.S.-based planes.
Another quote attributed to her was: ‘There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other.’
For years after leaving the Clinton administration, Albright remained a fixture in Washington – attending galas, book talks and other events.
She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from former President Barack Obama in 2012.
Madeleine Albright arrives at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington in 2017
Madeleine Albright (right) with then first lady Hillary Clinton (left) in 1997
Secretary of State Warren Christopher (right) yawns while US Ambassador Madeleine Albright (left) talked during opening statements at the United Nations Conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1995, before she was promoted to his job
Madeleine Albright (left) is captured outside the West Wing as U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali (right) speakers with reporters in 1994
Code Pink activists hold up a banner calling former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (left) a ‘war criminal’ during a Senate hearing alongside Madeleine Albright (right) in 2015
In 2009, she released the book, Read My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat’s Jewel Box, which detailed the ornate pins she wore with her outfits – and what they were meant to convey.
Balloons or flower pins would indicate she felt optimistic, while a crab or turtle would indicate frustration.
One favorite was a snake brooch, a reference to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein calling her an ‘unparalleled serpent.’
One of her last public appearances was as a speaker at former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s funeral in October.
Powell served under President George W. Bush – who Albright criticized – but later endorsed former President Barack Obama when he was running in the 2008 cycle.
Former President George W. Bush included a painting he did of Madeleine Albright in a statement expressing condolences
‘My heart is sad, for I have lost a friend,’ she said.
Bush sent out a statement Wednesday that included an oil painting he had done of Albright, calling her a ‘friend.’
‘Laura and I are heartbroken by the news of Madeleine Albright’s death,’ the former Republican president said.
‘She lived out the American dream and helped other realize it,’ Bush added.
Both Senate leaders also sent out statements, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer calling her ‘one-of-a kind and first-of-a-kind’ and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell complimenting her ‘remarkable, pathbreaking life.’
Born Marie Jana Korbelova in Prague on May 15, 1937, her family fled in 1939 to London when Germany occupied Czechoslovakia.
She attended school in Switzerland at age 10 and adopted the name Madeleine.
She was raised a Roman Catholic but after she became secretary of state, the Washington Post dug up documentation showing that her family was Jewish and relatives, including three grandparents, died in the Holocaust.
Her parents likely converted to Catholicism from Judaism to avoid persecution as Nazism gained strength in Europe, the paper reported.
After the war, the family left London and returned to Czechoslovakia, then in the throes of a communist takeover.
Former President Barack Obama (right) gives Madeleine Albright (left) the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012
Her father, a diplomat and academic who opposed communism, moved the family to the United States where he taught international studies at the University of Denver.
One of his favorite students was Condoleezza Rice, who would become the second female secretary of State in 2005 under Bush 43.
‘It is quite remarkable that this Czech émigré professor has trained two secretaries of state,’ Albright told the New York Times in 2006.
Albright attended Wellesley College in Massachusetts, and got a doctorate from Columbia University.
She became fluent or close to it in six languages including Czech, French, Polish and Russian as well as English.
In 1959, she married newspaper heir Joseph Medill Patterson Albright, whom she met while working at the Denver Post, and they had three daughters.
Madleine Albright (center right) attends the 2017 American Portrait Gallery alongside (from left) virologist David Ho, actress Rita Morena and choreographer Bill T. Jones
Madeleine Albright dressed in head-to-toe Baltimore Orioles gear during opening day at Camden Yards in 1997
Madeleine Albright’s (right) father taught former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (left). The two former leaders of the State Department posed for a picture at the Watermark Conference for Women in San Jose in 2017
They divorced in 1982.
She followed her father into academia but also became involved in Democratic politics.
Albright joined the staff of Sen. Edmund Muskie, a Maine Democrat, in 1976 and two years later became a member of President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Council staff.
Albright made forays into popular culture.
Parks and Recreation star Amy Poehler’s character had a picture of Albright in her office.
In 2005, the Gilmore Girls television series the character Rory dreamt that Albright, wearing a red suit and an eagle pin, was her mother.
In 2018, she and fellow former secretaries of state Powell and Hillary Clinton briefed a fictional secretary of state in Madam Secretary, where she spoke passionately about the dangers of abusive nationalism.
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