Happy Rockefeller

Margaretta Large "Happy" Rockefeller (née Fitler, formerly Murphy; June 9, 1926 – May 19, 2015) was a philanthropist who, as the wife of vice president Nelson Rockefeller, served as second lady of the United States from 1974 to 1977. She was previously the first lady of New York from 1963 to 1973, during her husband's last three terms in office. In 1991, she was appointed a public delegate to the United Nations by US President George HW Bush. She also was president of the board of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center north of Albany, New York, among other philanthropic projects. Family and education Margaretta Large Fitler was born at Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, in 1926. Her parents were Margaretta Large Harrison and William Wonderly Fitler Jr., an heir to a cordage fortune. Her mother would subsequently remarry. The younger Margaretta was known by her nickname, "Happy", given to her for her childhood disposition. She was a great-granddaughter of Philadelphia mayor Edwin Henry Fitler and a great-great-granddaughter of Union general George Gordon Meade, the commander at the Battle of Gettysburg, and his wife Margaretta Sergeant, daughter of politician John Sergeant. She graduated from the Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania in 1944.