Jane Muskie

Jane Frances Muskie (née Gray; February 12, 1927 – December 25, 2004) was an American civic leader and writer who, as the wife of Edmund Muskie, served as First Lady of Maine from 1955 to 1959. She was an active campaigner for her husband, supporting his political career on both state and national levels while he served in the Maine House of Representatives, as Governor of Maine, as a United States senator, and as Secretary of State. During the 1972 United States presidential election, she was accused in the Canuck letter, a forged letter reportedly written by Donald Segretti and Ken W. Clawson that was published by William Loeb III in the Manchester Union Leader, of being "racially intolerant", a "drunkard", and using colorful language on the campaign trail. Her husband publicly rebuked the letter, calling Loeb a "gutless coward" in an emotional display that ultimately lost him the 1972 Democratic Presidential Primary. Muskie later spoke about the incident with her husband in an interview with The New York Times in 1986, saying that "now it's quite acceptable for a man to show his emotions.. President Reagan does it all the time."

Inspired by her time in Washington, D.C., Muskie co-wrote a novel, with Abigail McCarthy, in 1986 about corruption and back-door politics titled One Woman Lost. After her husband's political career ended, they moved to Bethesda, Maryland. Muskie died there in 2004 due to complications from Alzheimer's disease and was buried, next to her husband, in Arlington National Cemetery.