26 Facts About Kitty Dukakis

Katharine Dickson Dukakis was an American author and activist for various social causes.

Kitty Dukakis 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.

Kitty Dukakis was born Katharine Virginia Dickson on December 26,1936, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the daughter of Jane and Harry Ellis Dickson.

Kitty Dukakis's mother was born to an Irish Catholic father and a Hungarian Jewish mother, and had been adopted by a family of German Jewish descent.

Kitty Dukakis's father was a member of the first violin section of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 49 years and served as Associate Conductor of the Boston Pops orchestra.

Kitty Dukakis graduated from Brookline High School in 1954 and attended Pennsylvania State University.

Kitty Dukakis dropped out of college in 1956 and married John Chaffetz in 1957.

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.

Kitty Dukakis began attending a synagogue following a trip to Israel in 1976, and by 1988, she was attending Temple Israel, a reform synagogue in Boston.

Kitty Dukakis received a Master of Arts degree from Boston University College of Communication in 1982.

In 1996, Kitty Dukakis graduated from the Boston University School of Social Work with a Master of Arts degree in social work.

Kitty Dukakis was the First Lady of Massachusetts from 1975 to 1979, and from January 1983 until January 1991.

Kitty Dukakis kept an office in the Massachusetts State House, and would frequently visit her husband's office to seek his opinion on projects in which she was involved.

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

Kitty Dukakis was a speaker at campaign events aimed towards the Jewish community, where she used her "scanty Yiddish".

Kitty Dukakis was the first spouse of a major Presidential candidate who was Jewish.

Kitty Dukakis was involved in multiple social causes throughout her political career.

Kitty Dukakis was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, serving until 1987, when her term expired.

Kitty Dukakis's work "helped to dramatically increase the number of state-funded homeless shelters" in Massachusetts.

Kitty Dukakis was interested in aiding Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees, and served on the board of the Refugee Policy Group.

Kitty Dukakis struggled with depression for much of her life, which drove an addiction to diet pills, and later a struggle with alcoholism.

Kitty Dukakis overcame her addiction to diet pills in 1982, making that fact public when her husband began his presidential bid.

In 1991, Kitty 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.

Kitty Dukakis released a book on the subject, Shock: The Healing Power of Electroconvulsive Therapy, in 2006, and became a leading proponent of using ECT to treat depression.

Kitty Dukakis allowed the TV program 60 Minutes to film one of her ECT sessions as part of a program on the subject.

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