Edmund Muskie

Edmund Sixtus "Ed" Muskie (28 March 191426 March 1996) was an American politician who was a member of the Democratic Party.

Muskie was born in Rumford, Maine, to a Polish family.

He was the Governor of Maine from 1955 to 1959 and a U.S. Senator from 1959 to 1980. He served as United States Secretary of State from 1980 to 1981 under the Carter administration. President Jimmy Carter gave Muskie the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1981.

Muskie died in Washington, D.C., from congestive heart failure at the age of 81.

Early life
Muskie was born in Rumford, Maine, on 28 March 1914. His father, Stephen Marciszewski (mar-chih-SHEF-ski), had immigrated to the United States in 1903 and changed his name to Muskie.

Education
Muskie graduated from Bates College in 1936 and from Cornell University Law School in 1939. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He served in the Atlantic and the Pacific Theaters from 1942 to 1945.

Career
Muskie was the Democratic Party's nominee for Vice President in the 1968 presidential election. Muskie later ran for President in the 1972 presidential election. After announcing that he had lost, he chocked with anger and began to cry. Afterwards, Muskie siad that he had not he cried and said that it was simply "melted snow flakes" in his eyes, not tears. He later said he had cried was that because newspapers had insulted his wife.

Muskie held the highest office (Secretary of State) by a Polish American in U.S. history. If he won the presidential election in 1972, he would have been the first Polish-American President of the United States.

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan appointed Muskie to serve in the Tower Commission to investigate the Iran-Contra affair.

Personal life
He was married to Jane Gray from 1940 until his death in 1996. He died of congestive heart failure. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

References

Other websites

The Edmund S. Muskie Foundation
Edmund Muskie at Findagrave

Category:1914 births
Category:1996 deaths
Category:Burials at Arlington National Cemetery
Category:Deaths from congestive heart failure
Category:Governors of Maine
Category:1972 United States presidential candidates
Category:United States Secretaries of State
Category:United States senators from Maine
Category:Democratic Party (United States) politicians
Category:20th-century American politicians