News -- March 23, 2022: The United States mourns the loss of Madeleine Albright, who served as the
first woman secretary of state under, President Bill Clinton. She died at age 84 today of cancer
Albright was born May 15, 1937, in Prague, where her father was a diplomat, and her family fled Czechoslovakia when she was 2 years old to escape the Nazis. They initially moved to England before settling in Denver in 1948. Albright became a U.S. citizen in 1957 and graduated from Wellesley College. She later earned her doctorate in public law and government at Columbia University.
In 1976, she went to work as a legislative assistant for Democratic Sen. Edmund Muskie, who went on to become the secretary of state. She joined the staff of the National Security Council two years later during the Carter administration.
Bill Clinton named Albright the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations after he was inaugurated in 1993, and nominated her as the secretary of state three years later. She was confirmed in 1997 by a vote of 99-0. At the time, she was the highest-ranking woman in the history of the U.S. government.
Albright served in the post for four years, promoting the expansion of NATO and military intervention in Kosovo.
Wnctimes by Marjorie Farrington
Photo: via Madeline Albright Twiiter Account