Congresswoman Geraldine A. Ferraro * STONEWALL Vets Assn. Honorary Member since 1978 when GAF won her first Congressional election!

Geraldine A. Ferraro was born in upstate New York. After her father and two young brothers died, "Lil' Gerri" moved with her mother to The Bronx, NYC, at an early age. Eventually, they moved to Queens, another borough in New York City. Geraldine graduated college in NYC from Marymount Manhattan College and from law school in The Bronx at Fordham University. Before entering government service, "Miss Ferraro" admirably taught school in New York City for five years. Geraldine Ferraro was a persevering Assistant District Attorney in Queens as of 1974. She rose to head of the District Attorney's Special Victims Bureau. Urged by then NYS Assemblyman (later Governor) Mario Cuomo, Geraldine ran for U.S. Congress! Like Bella Abzug said: "A woman's place is in the House!" Members of the STONEWALL Veterans' Association met (via Bella) and helped Geraldine during her first successful congressional campaign in 1978 for New York's Ninth District (mostly Queens/part Brooklyn). She rose to be an outstanding three-term Congresswoman. Every election, her winning percentages grew! In July of 1984, as the first woman in American history, Geraldine was electrifyingly convention-voted as the Democratic nominee for Vice-President of the United States. Besides a gender break-through, Geraldine Ferraro dignifiedly represented ethnic diversity as the first (and, to date, only) Italian-American national nominee in a major political party.

The S.V.A. was enthusiastically supportive of Geraldine Ferraro's impressively-qualified and principle-before-politics campaigns in 1992 (narrow loss) and 1998 for the U.S. Senate from New York. We were right then, and now! During Gay Pride Month in 1998, the lovely and always smiling Geraldine toured the GLBT Center's Garden Party, attended by thousands, escorted by the SVA's director Williamson Henderson and community activist friend Liz Abzug. In fact, Geraldine proudly marched with and garnered great publicity as the special guest of the STONEWALL Veterans' Association leading the New York City Gay Pride Parade in June of both years. GAF's stylish handbag, personal papers folder and keys were securely locked in the big trunk of the 1969 Cadillac convertible "Stonewall Car". In between her statewide Senate campaigns, Geraldine served four years during the President Bill Clinton Administration as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. She co-hosted the popular political talk show "Crossfire!" on Cable News Network (CNN). Before it was politically vogue, Geraldine Ferraro strongly supported marriage equality as an American civil right and she clearly so-stated!

Over the past decade, through fellow native Queens resident Andrew M. Cuomo's campaigns in 2002, 2006 and 2010, of which Geraldine was strongly endorseful and hard campaigning, S.V.A. members got to see Geraldine at many campaign rallies and election parties. Until late 2010, Geraldine Ferraro was a valued on-air political commentator on the worldwide Fox News Channel (FNC). In a historical first on Election Night 2010, FNC-TV had a joint appearance by the only two women Vice-President nominees in American history, Geraldine and Sarah Palin, separated by a quarter-of-a-century and different political parties. Besides her son John, Jr. and daughter Donna, both married with children, and now grandchildren, Geraldine had the rare life accomplishment of a marriage -- John Zaccaro -- spanning more than half a century! Like her political idol before her, another trailblazing New York City Congresswoman and S.V.A. supporter, Bella Abzug, and recently one of the most popular women of all time, Elizabeth Taylor, ironically, Geraldine also passed during the History Month of Women!

=Tribute to and Commentaries on Geraldine Ferraro=
www.FoxNews.com/on-air/personalities/Geraldine-Ann-Ferraro/bio

=Memorial Services and Wake for Geraldine A. Ferraro=
Services for Geraldine Ferraro Zaccaro are at the famous Frank E. Campbell Funeral Home on Tuesday, March 29 and Wednesday, March 30 from 2 to 5 p.m. in the afternoon and 5 to 7 p.m. in the evening. The S.V.A. is represented by someone that Geraldine knew longtime, personally appreciated and publicly acknowledged, its founder Williamson. He will present each family member with a special GAF remembrance packet of photos at S.V.A. events and letters from Hon. Geraldine to the S.V.A. For more info on the funeral home and location, see their listing at: www.STONEWALLvets.org/businessadvertisers.htm.

=Funeral Mass for "The Rose of New York" Geraldine=
The funeral mass for Geraldine Ferraro Zaccaro is at the Catholic Church of St. Vincent Ferrer on Lexington Avenue at East 66th Street in Manhattan, N.Y. Confirmed attendees include former President Bill Clinton, former U.S. Vice-President Walter Mondale (and his wife), Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former Governor Mario Cuomo, former First Lady Matilda Cuomo, NYS Governor Andrew Cuomo, Congressional Democratic Leader Nancy Polosi, former Mayor Ed Koch, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, Congressman Joe Crowley, NYC Public Advocate Bill De Blasio, NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Manhattan Democratic Leader Keith Wright................

R.I.P. - S.V.A. Honorary Member Geraldine Anne Ferraro!