Teresa Heinz Kerry

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Formerly Maria Teresa Thierstein Simoes-Ferreira, Teresa Heinz Kerry was born to Portuguese parents in Mozambique in 1938. Fluent in English, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese, she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Romance languages and literature from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa and graduated from the Interpreters School of the University of Geneva in 1963. Heinz Kerry then worked as a translator and as a consultant to the United Nations Trusteeship in New York City.

Heinz Kerry, was married to Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania, whom she met when they were graduate students, for 25 years. After her husband's death in a plane crash in 1991, Teresa inherited over $500 million from the Heinz family and turned down offers to seek election to her husband's Senate seat in order to be able to devote time to her three sons and to philanthropic efforts. She became the chair of the Heinz family's $1.2 billion philanthropic foundations, which are known for their involvement in education, environmental issues, the arts, women's health care and prescription drug sale reform. In 1996 she established the Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement in order to educate women about savings, pensions, and retirement security.

Teresa Heinz met John Kerry through her first husband at an Earth Day rally in 1990. After the death of John Heinz, she met Kerry again at an Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro when she was sent as part of a U.S. State Department delegation by President George H. W. Bush. She and Kerry married on Memorial Day weekend in 1995 in the presence of her three sons and his two daughters.

A patron of the arts, Heinz Kerry was elected as a fellow on the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences in 2001. In September 2003, she received the Albert Schweitzer Gold Medal for Humanitarianism for her work in promoting health care, education and environmental issues and bettering the lives of women and children throughout the world. She has received numerous awards and 10 honorary degrees for her work.

Last updated: March 24, 2009.

• Born: 5 October 1938
• Birthplace: Lourenco Marques (now Maputo), Mozambique
• Best Known As: Wife of U.S. Senator John Kerry

Name at birth: Maria Teresa Thierstein Simoes-Ferreira

Teresa Heinz Kerry is the wife of Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts and the former wife of the late Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania. Heinz Kerry was born in Mozambique, the daughter of a Portuguese medical doctor. She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, and later attended the University of Geneva. In 1966 she married Henry John Heinz III (known as John), a member of the Heinz ketchup and condiment family. A Republican, he was elected U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania in 1976, and remained in that post until he was killed in a plane crash in 1991. As his widow, Teresa Heinz has since overseen the Heinz family's charitable endowments, in which role she has particularly supported environmental causes in America and internationally. She first met Kerry in 1990 (at an Earth Day rally, according to her official bio) and they were reintroduced the year after John Heinz's death. The pair married in 1995. She was thrust into the spotlight in 2004, when John Kerry, a Democrat, ran for the presidency against the Republican incumbent, George W. Bush.

According to a 2003 article in USA Today, Heinz Kerry "speaks Portuguese, English, French, Spanish and Italian"... She had three children with John Heinz: H. John Heinz IV, Andre, and Christopher... Her stepchildren with John Kerry are Vanessa and Alexandra Kerry... Though a Republican when she married John Kerry, Heinz Kerry is now registered as a Democrat... For details on her counterpart in the 2004 elections, see our profile of Laura Bush... In 2005 it was reported that she dropped the name Kerry and now goes by Teresa Heinz.