Muriel Humphrey

Muriel Fay Humphrey Brown (née Buck; February 20, 1912September 20, 1998) was an American politician who served as the second lady of the United States from 1965 to 1969, and as a U.S. Senator from Minnesota in 1978. She was married to the 38th vice president of the United States, Hubert Humphrey. Following her husband's death, she was appointed to his seat in the United States Senate, serving for most of the year 1978, thus becoming the first woman to serve as a senator from Minnesota, and the only Second Lady of the United States to hold public office. After leaving office, she remarried and took the name Muriel Humphrey Brown. Early life and marriage Humphrey was born Muriel Fay Buck on February 20, 1912, in Huron, South Dakota, daughter of Andrew E. Buck and his wife, the former Jessie Mae Pierce. She attended Huron College and met her future husband; Hubert Humphrey in 1934, when she was twenty-two years old and working as a bookkeeper. They married on September 3, 1936, saying, "It was love at first waltz". After living with their daughter in South Dakota, she moved to the South to join her husband when he pursued a graduate degree at Louisiana State University, where she found work in the Department of Government as a typist. She had four children: Hubert III, Nancy, Robert, and Douglas. The Humphreys built a home and moved to Waverly, a small village west of Minneapolis, in the mid-1950s and maintained it as their primary residence until Hubert Humphrey was elected vice president in the U.S. presidential election of 1964. Political life Muriel served as an informal adviser to her husband after he entered politics. His first office was mayor of Minneapolis. From there, he served three consecutive terms as senator from Minnesota. It was during his second Senatorial campaign that Muriel began making campaign appearances alongside her husband.