Who Was Nancy Kissinger? Wife Of Former US Secretary Of State Henry Kissinger Passes Away At 92

Nancy Kissinger, the foreign policy specialist who became a prominent force beside her diplomat husband Henry and helped cement their place among New York's social elite, has died. She was 92.

She died at her home in South Kent, Connecticut, the New York Times reported, citing a family announcement.

Her death follows that of her husband. Henry Kissinger served as US secretary of state under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford and died in November 2023 at 100.

She mirrored the grace of Jackie Kennedy. Standing nearly six feet tall with a slender frame and Episcopalian upbringing, she contrasted sharply with her five-foot-eight husband who escaped Nazi Germany at 15. Her quick wit and patrician manners made her a striking foil to the diplomat.

"My wife Nancy encouraged me with her advice and love," Henry Kissinger wrote in the introduction to Years of Renewal, the final volume of his memoirs. "As always, she served as my conscience."

A Diplomatic Partnership

Born Nancy Sharon Maginnes on April 13, 1934, in Manhattan, she was the daughter of Albert Bristol Maginnes, a trusts and estates lawyer who had played professional football, and Agnes McKinley. She grew up in White Plains, studied at the Masters School in Dobbs Ferry and graduated in 1955 from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts.

She met her future husband in the summer of 1964 when both worked for New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller—he as a foreign policy adviser for Rockefeller's presidential campaign and she as a researcher.

She left her doctoral studies. Henry Kissinger persuaded her to halt her history PhD at the University of California, Berkeley, and move back to New York to assist Nelson Rockefeller. She then managed international studies for the Commission on Critical Choices for Americans. Rockefeller funded and established the body, resigning as governor in late 1973 to run it.

Meanwhile, Henry Kissinger became Nixon’s secretary of state in September 1973. By then, the New York Times called Nancy "a frequent companion of Mr. Kissinger", whose first marriage had ended in divorce in 1964 and produced two children, David and Elizabeth.

Henry was 50 and Nancy 39 when they married on March 30, 1974, in Arlington, Virginia. The New York Times reported, “Although there had been rumors of Mr. Kissinger’s wedding plans for a long time, he gave no indication that he was about to be married when he met with newsmen shortly before noon today to comment on his talks yesterday and this morning with Defense Minister Moshe Dayan of Israel.”

At a White House dinner a few weeks later, Nixon drew laughs by remarking of his secretary of state’s new wife, "She’s a little liberal, but otherwise she’s all right."

Nancy Kissinger was plunged into the public eye, with the press carrying photos of her honeymoon in Acapulco. The couple appeared on the cover of People magazine in 1975, with an article dubbing her Henry’s "intellectual soulmate" and "ambassadress-at-large".

"Nancy Kissinger was one of the most gracious, lovely women I ever met," Bruce Tully, who protected her for the State Department Diplomatic Security Service, said in an interview with the Association for Diplomatic Services and Training.

Social Elite and Advocacy

No one was ever bored when seated next to her. She met Mao Zedong in China and Mother Teresa in India and visited Harry Truman’s widow, Bess, in Independence, Missouri. The leader of the Kurdish rebels in Iraq gave her a gold and pearl necklace. King Hussein of Jordan flew her in his helicopter.

From the late 1970s until Henry’s death in November 2023, at age 100, the couple mixed with titans, socialites and media elite in New York, including Henry Kravis, Steve Schwarzman, Brooke Astor, Katharine Graham and Barbara Walters. Nancy organised Henry’s 50th birthday party at the Colony Club in 1973—a year before they were married—as well as his 90th birthday party at the St. Regis hotel.

Whether being photographed at galas and fashion shows or hosting intimate dinners at their homes in Manhattan and Kent, Connecticut, Nancy Kissinger elevated her husband and bolstered him through scrutiny of his career. In 1982, she was acquitted of a simple assault charge involving a woman who had verbally harassed her husband at an airport. Her defence was that she was protecting him on his way to open-heart surgery in Boston.

In 1983, the couple bought a home in Kent and Nancy oversaw its decoration and gardens. Her eye for beauty prized peonies, clothes by Bill Blass and Oscar de la Renta and classic statement jewels.

The couple shared a love of dogs. Theirs included Tyler, a golden retriever who was a descendant of President Ford’s dog Liberty, and Labrador retrievers Amelia and Abigail. Nancy Kissinger was a trustee of the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center in Manhattan for about 30 years and helped make its Top Dog Gala a hit on the social calendar.

"It didn’t matter if she was in a $50,000 gown, she’d stand there with the dogs we’d be honoring, bend down and pet them," Kathryn Coyne, the centre's chief executive officer, said in an interview. "You can really tell the people who care about animals at those events, and she was one of them, not worrying about dog hair or the dogs jumping up on her. She was dedicated and down to Earth."