Madeleine Albright: First Woman to Serve as U.S. Secretary of State Dies

Madeleine Albright was an American diplomat and political scientist, the first woman to serve as U.S. Secretary of State. Born Marie Jana Korbelova on May 15, 1937, in Prague, Czechoslovakia, her family fled the Nazis and later the Communist takeover before settling in Denver, Colorado.

Albright served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 1993 to 1997 and then as the 64th Secretary of State from 1997 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. She earned her PhD at Columbia University and taught at Georgetown University. After leaving office she founded the consulting firm Albright Stonebridge Group.

Albright received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. She learned only as an adult that her parents had been born Jewish and converted to Catholicism in 1941. She married Joseph Albright in 1959, and they had three daughters; they divorced in the early 1980s. She spoke seven languages. She died of cancer in Washington, D.C., on March 23, 2022, at age 84.

Achievements: U.S. Ambassador to the UN (1993-1997), 64th Secretary of State (1997-2001), founded the Albright Group (2001), Presidential Medal of Freedom (2012).

Birth: May 15, 1937 - Prague, Czechoslovakia.

Profession: Diplomat and professor.

Interesting Facts: She was famous for her collection of brooches, which she used to send diplomatic messages. She was not eligible for presidential succession as she was foreign-born.