Teresa Heinz Kerry, the wife of presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee John Kerry, is a potential first lady who is outspoken and active on social issues.
Ms. Heinz Kerry was born in Mozambique, educated in South Africa and Switzerland, and is fluent in five languages. She moved to the United States in the 1960s to work for the United Nations. In 1966, she married John Heinz, the heir to the Heinz Ketchup fortune, and the couple had three sons. Mr. Heinz, a Republican senator from Pennsylvania, died in a plane crash in 1991.
Four years later, Ms. Heinz married Senator Kerry.
Widely described as both candid and opinionated, Ms. Heinz-Kerry says she is a champion of women's issues, children, the environment, and health care.
She also has been a strong advocate for human rights and a supporter of the arts. She controls the Heinz Foundation, which supports numerous humanitarian causes, including education and economic development, as well as the performing arts.