Wife of former Senator Mike Mansfield remembered as force behind husband’s success.

HELENA — Montana political leaders on Wednesday fondly remembered Maureen Mansfield, wife of former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield, as his gracious partner who encouraged him to complete his education and urged him to enter politics. She died in a Washington, D.C., nursing home Wednesday at age 95. Funeral arrangements were not announced immediately. Besides her husband, a daughter, Anne, who lives in London, survives “To me, it’s a wonderful love story,” said U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont. “Maureen and Mike. They were inseparable from the beginning, each essential for the other. I have never seen a couple so bonded to each other. It was wonderful to behold.” “She was so gracious, positive and upbeat,” said Baucus, who called Mansfield Wednesday to offer his condolences. Former U.S. Rep. Pat Williams remembered Maureen Mansfield “as a smart, determined, gracious and very pretty woman.” “Without Maureen, of course, there is no Mike Mansfield, and he insists that we all remember,” said Williams, who now teaches at the University of Montana. “He was an unemployed miner and a high school dropout when she talked him into going back to school. She and his students talked him into running for Congress.” “Because Maureen came from a different time in American life, she always appeared as a silent partner, and because of it, Montana and the country will never fully understand our debt to her,” Williams added. As Mansfield frequently recalled in his speeches, he fell in love with and married Maureen Hayes, then a school teacher in Butte in 1932. She had encouraged Mansfield, then a copper miner who had dropped out of high school to enter World War I, to get the equivalent of his high school degree and to later go onto college. He did, and Mansfield later taught history at the University of Montana before entering politics. He was in Congress for 34 years, including 24 in the Senate, and later served as U.S. ambassador to Japan for 12 years. “She was a brilliant woman,” said Peggy DeMichele, who worked as a top aide for Mansfield from 1945 until January 1977 and now lives in a Maryland suburb. “She read tremendously. She was the one who encouraged Mike to get his education.” DeMichele said Maureen Mansfield would come to his Senate office in Washington from time to time to help out if needed. The former Mansfield aide recalled driving around Montana with Maureen Mansfield during campaigns so she could help him campaign by attending coffees and teas. Donna Metcalf, whose late husband, Lee Metcalf, served in the Senate with Mike Mansfield for 16 years, said, “I think she and Mike were very close. She spent a great deal of her time at home. She was a great reader. When all the new books came into the congressional reading room at the Library of Congress, she would get them and read them right away.” She remembered Maureen Mansfield as a “very handsome, fragile-looking woman.” Former U.S. Sen. John Melcher, a Democrat who succeeded Mansfield, said Maureen Mansfield was a gracious, constant companion to the senator and said he always admired their close relationship. Harry Fritz, a history professor at the University of Montana, said Mike Mansfield always insisted that any efforts to honor him include Maureen or he wasn’t interested. As a result, the library at UM is named the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library. When Gov. Marc Racicot proposed having a statue of Mansfield in the Capitol, he insisted she be honored as well. Holly Kaleczyc, who was worked for Mansfield in Washington in 1975 to 1977 and now is active in statewide Democratic campaigns in Helena, recalled how she worked as the Senate majority leader’s scheduler. “For the year I did the schedule, he was invited to the most important events, and he declined most of them so he could have dinner with her,” she said “She was really a huge priority for him. They were really partners.” Gov. Marc Racicot said Mike Mansfield’s fondness for Maureen always shone through. “Every time we had a chance to talk there were discussions about Maureen. In our conversations, his boundless admiration and affection for her was always apparent. What an extraordinary human being.” Former Gov. Thomas L. Judge remembered how bright Maureen Mansfield was and how Mike Mansfield, as a senator and then ambassador, relieved on her good judgment. He said Maureen Mansfield “was a charming and bright and intelligent woman.” “They were partners in everything they did,” Judge said. Jim Murry, retired executive secretary of the Montana AFL-CIO, called Maureen Mansfield “really a great lady in so many ways.” “She obviously had a tremendous impact on his life and as a result of that had a tremendous impact on the state of Montana and on the nation,” Murry said. “She was a real power, but most of the people in Montana and in the nation didn’t get much of a glimpse of her.”