Former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro dead at 75

BOSTON (AP) — Geraldine Ferraro, who in 1984 became the first woman to run for vice president on a major U.S. party ticket, only to lose in a landslide, died Saturday. She was 75.

Ferraro died at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she was being treated for blood cancer. She died just before 10 a.m. (1400 GMT), said Amanda Fuchs Miller, a family friend who worked for Ferraro in her 1998 Senate bid and was acting as a spokeswoman for the family.

An obscure Queens congresswoman, Ferraro catapulted to national prominence at the 1984 Democratic convention when she was chosen by presidential nominee Walter Mondale to join his ticket against incumbents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.

Delegates in San Francisco erupted in cheers at the first line of her speech accepting the vice-presidential nomination.

“My name is Geraldine Ferraro,” she declared. “I stand before you to proclaim tonight: America is the land where dreams can come true for all of us.”

Her acceptance speech launched eight minutes of cheers, foot-stamping and tears.

Ferraro sometimes overshadowed former Vice President Mondale on the campaign trail, often drawing larger crowds and more media attention than the presidential candidate.

“No one asks anymore if women can raise the money, if women can take the heat, if women have the stamina for the toughest political campaigns in this country,” Judy Goldsmith, then-president of the National Organization for Women told People Magazine in December 1984. “Geraldine Ferraro did them all.”

But controversy accompanied her acclaim. Frequent, vociferous protests of her favorable view of abortion rights marked the campaign.