Joan Mondale

Joan Mondale (née Adams; August 8, 1930 – February 3, 2014) was the second lady of the United States from 1977 until 1981 as the wife of Walter Mondale, the 42nd vice president of the United States. She was an artist and author and served on the boards of several organizations. For her promotion of the arts, she was affectionately dubbed Joan of Art. Family and education Joan Adams was born on August 8, 1930, in Eugene, Oregon, one of three daughters of the Rev. John Maxwell Adams, a Presbyterian minister, and his wife, the former Eleanor Jane Hall. She attended Media Friends School, an integrated Quaker school in Media, Pennsylvania; a public school in Columbus, Ohio; and later St. Paul Academy and Summit School in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1952, she graduated from Macalester College in St. Paul, where her father served as chaplain, with a bachelor's degree in history. Following graduation from college, she worked at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. On December 27, 1955, Joan married Minneapolis lawyer Walter "Fritz" Mondale, whom she had met on a blind date. The couple had three children: Ted Mondale (b. October 12, 1957), Minnesota politician, former State Senator, and candidate for Governor of Minnesota in 1998. Eleanor Jane Mondale Poling (January 19, 1960 – September 17, 2011), television and radio personality who died of brain cancer at the age of 51 William Hall Mondale (b. February 27, 1962), Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Minnesota Attorney General (1990–2000) Political life