Geraldine Ferraro, VP hopeful, dies at 75

Geraldine Ferraro -- the former Queens congresswoman who shattered a political glass ceiling in 1984 by running as the first female vice-presidential candidate on a major party ticket -- died Saturday in Boston surrounded by her family.

Ferraro, 75, died at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she was being treated for multiple myeloma, a blood cancer.

The three-time, little-known congresswoman was an unexpected choice for national office.

But on a balmy San Francisco evening on July 19, 1984, Ferraro, in a blazing white suit, stood before a raucous Democratic National Convention and accepted her party's nomination as Walter Mondale's running mate.

"I stand before you to proclaim tonight: America is the land where dreams can come true for all of us," Ferraro said.

Robert Zimmerman, a Democratic National Committeeman who lives on Long Island, was a Ferraro delegate. "It opened the doors for women and all ethnic Americans to know they had an equal place at the table," he said.

Ferraro resonated with both men and women as she campaigned, telling stories about her immigrant mother, who decorated wedding dresses.

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Mondale and Ferraro lost in a landslide to incumbents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, but her trailblazing campaign broke barriers for women.

Saturday, Mondale remembered her as "a dear human being. She broke a lot of molds and it's a better country for what she did."

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) called Ferraro "a good friend." Among others offering tributes were President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and former President Bill Clinton and New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

"We've lost a great Democrat and a great American," said Jay Jacobs, the state and Nassau Democratic committee chief. "Someone who fought for what she believed in, advanced the cause of women's rights in this country."

Ferraro spurred controversy during her campaign because she backed abortion rights.

Questions about tax returns and her husband John Zaccaro's business deals muddied the campaign. In 1985, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor fraud charge.

After the campaign, Ferraro became a fellow of the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

For years, the couple summered in Saltaire on Fire Island.

Cosmo Hull was playing rightfield for a softball team in Saltaire in 1984 when a fly ball sailed over his head, rolling toward the boardwalk where Ferraro and her Secret Service agents were strolling. Hull, then 28, ran after the ball.

"I was barreling right into Geraldine Ferraro and the five Secret Service agents," Hull said. The agents drew their guns, and Hull recalled Ferraro saying, "Don't shoot. I know him."

Ferraro was born in 1935 in Newburgh to Dominick Ferraro, a restaurant owner, and the former Antonetta Corrieri. Her father, an Italian immigrant, died when she was 8 and her mother moved to the Bronx, sending Ferraro to boarding school in Tarrytown.

In 1960, she received a law degree from Fordham University, passed the bar exam and married Zaccaro. She taught before becoming a lawyer. Ferraro worked both in private practice and as an assistant district attorney in Queens.

Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Roslyn Heights), a Queens newspaper editor when Ferraro ran for Congress, said Saturday he thought her abortion-rights stance and other positions meant certain defeat.

"She stuck to her guns and her principles, and she won it," Ackerman said.

She entered politics again in 1992, seeking the seat of Sen. Alfonse D'Amato. But she lost the Democratic primary. In 1998, she made another Senate bid but Schumer won the primary.

She is survived by her husband and three children: Donna Zaccaro Ullman and John Zaccaro Jr., both of Manhattan; and Laura Zaccaro Lee of Concord, Mass.; and eight grandchildren.

With Matthew Chayes, Sarah Crichton, Keith Herbert and AP