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.

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. She was succeeded as Second Lady by Barbara Bush.

Joan Mondale was a supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment and often lent her support publicly to the cause.

Walter Mondale lost the election, and the Mondales returned to Minnesota, where they lived until his term as U.S. Ambassador to Japan from 1993 to 1996, after which he resumed his Minneapolis-based law practice.

Joan of Art Mondale playing the drums after a press conference at the National Museum of African Art with, (l–r), Rep. Lindy Boggs, Rep. Walter E. Fauntroy, Warren M. Robbins (founder of the museum), and Sen. Wendell Anderson, 1978 Joan Mondale was a lifelong practitioner, patron, and advocate of the arts, and her nickname 'Joan of Art' was a tribute.

An accomplished potter, she studied art at college, and then worked in galleries, before moving to Washington as a Senator's wife in 1964, and led guided tours at the National Gallery of Art. In 1972, she wrote a book Politics in Art, examining how political commentary is reflected in artworks. Later she regularly gave tours as a guide for friend Ellen Proxmire (the then wife of Wisconsin Democratic Senator William Proxmire)'s company whirl-around.

Later, as Second Lady, she turned the Vice Presidential Mansion into a showcase of American art, with works by artists including Robert Rauschenberg, Edward Hopper, Louise Nevelson, and Ansel Adams. At this time, she also served as chairperson of the Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities.

As the U.S. Ambassador's wife in Japan, she enthusiastically promoted inter-cultural understanding through art, redecorating the Embassy with American paintings and organising tours with a bi-lingual guide. She studied Japanese art, and impressed the Mayor of Kyoto by presenting him with a ceramic bowl she had made herself in the traditional Mashiko style.

She was the author of Letters From Japan, a collection of essays about life overseas published in 1998.

She also served as a member of the Postmaster General's Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee from 2005 to 2010.

Death On February 2, 2014, Mondale's family announced that she had entered hospice care due to Alzheimer's disease. She died at a care facility in Minneapolis the following day, at age 83. Her remains were cremated, and later dispersed along the St. Croix River.

Legacy The Joan and Walter Mondale Award for Public Service is named for Mondale and her husband.

Books