Katharine Virginia "Kitty" Dickson Dukakis ( ; née Dickson; December 26, 1936 – March 21, 2025) was an American author and activist for various social causes. She served as the First Lady of Massachusetts from 1975 to 1979 and 1983 to 1991, as the wife of the Governor of Massachusetts, Michael Dukakis (who was the Democratic Party's nominee for president in 1988).

Early life and education

thumb|150px|left|Kitty Dickson, a student at [[Brookline High School (1954)]]

Dukakis was born Katharine Virginia Dickson on December 26, 1936, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the daughter of Jane (née Goldberg) and Harry Ellis Dickson. Her paternal grandparents were Russian Jews. Her mother was born to an Irish Catholic father and a Hungarian Jewish mother, and had been adopted by a family of German Jewish descent. Her father was a member of the first violin section of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 49 years and also served as Associate Conductor of the Boston Pops orchestra.

She graduated from Brookline High School in 1954 and attended Pennsylvania State University. She dropped out of college in 1956 and married John Chaffetz in 1957. They had one son, John. After four years and several moves, the marriage ended in divorce, and she returned to Cambridge.

She received her B.A. from Lesley College in 1963, the same year she married Michael Dukakis in a civil ceremony. During the 1988 election, Michael Dukakis said that the couple had another child who died shortly after being born. Kitty Dukakis received some criticism for being a Jewish woman who married a Christian man; however, in a 1988 interview, she asserted that marrying outside her faith had strengthened her identification with Judaism. She began attending a synagogue following a trip to Israel in 1976, and by 1988, she was attending Temple Israel, a reform synagogue in Boston.

Dukakis received her Master of Arts degree from Boston University College of Communication in 1982. In 1996, Dukakis graduated from the Boston University School of Social Work with a Master of Arts degree in social work.

1988 presidential election

thumb|left|Dukakis and her husband, 1987

Dukakis joined her husband, Michael Dukakis, on the campaign trail during his 1988 presidential campaign, speaking as a "poised and energetic public speaker" at many of his events.

After Michael was criticized for being too liberal, she "urged [him] to be more aggressive".

Prior to the 1988 presidential election, several false rumors were reported in the media about the Dukakises, including the claim by Idaho Republican Senator Steve Symms that she had burned an American flag to protest the Vietnam War. serving until 1987, when her term expired. She was reappointed to the council in 1989 by President George H. W. Bush.<!-- She also served on the President's Commission on the Holocaust. -->

Starting during her husband's second term, Dukakis served as co-chair of the Massachusetts Governor's Advisory Committee on the Homeless, where she worked on plans to share shelter costs with charities within the state. In the early 1980s, she established the Task Force on Cambodian Children. In November 1989, she was briefly hospitalized after drinking rubbing alcohol. In 1991, Dukakis published her memoir, Now You Know, in which she candidly discussed her ongoing battle with alcoholism and the pressures of being a political wife. She allowed the TV program 60 Minutes to film one of her ECT sessions as part of a program on the subject. In her later years, Dukakis ran a support group in Brookline for those struggling with depression.

Dukakis died at her home in Brookline, Massachusetts, on March 21, 2025, at the age of 88, of complications from dementia.

Published works

  • Cowritten with Larry Tye

References

  • "Appointment of Katharine D. Dukakis as a Member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council 1989-12-19", George Bush Presidential Library and Museum, College Station, Texas. A short profile of her education and career
  • Dukakis, Kitty; Tye, Larry, "I Feel Good, I Feel Alive", Newsweek, September 18, 2006. An article in which she discusses her treatment with electroconvulsive therapy for depression