January 26, 1979: The Strange Death of Nelson Rockefeller

January 26, 1979: Nelson Rockfeller dies of a heart attack at his desk at Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan. Or so the initial story goes.

Born on July 8, 1908 in Bar Harbor, Maine, and raised in Pocantico Hills, Westchester County, New York, "Rocky" was the grandson of America's 1st oil billionaire, John D. Rockefeller Sr.; and the son of John D. Rockefeller Jr., building of Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan, and operating it for his father. He was Assistant Secretary of State for American Republic Affairs for Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S Truman during World War II, a Republican appointed by Democrats.

He went on to be friendly with TV anchorman Howard K. Smith. At the Rainbow Room atop the RCA Building, the centerpiece of Rockefeller Center, he invited Smith to lunch, and told him, "Order anything you want, it's on me. Anything except Oysters Rockefeller. I can't stand them." (Named for his grandfather, the dish consists of oysters on the half-shell, topped with a rich sauce of butter, parsley and other green herbs, and bread crumbs, then baked or broiled. Lemon wedges are the typical garnish.) When Smith reminded Rockefeller that FDR, his fellow Dutchess County, New York native, loved them, Rockefeller said, "He would."

"Rocky" later served as an Undersecretary of Health, Education and Welfare under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In 1958, he was elected Governor of New York, beating the Democratic incumbent, from another fabulously wealthy New York State family, Averell Harriman, with 54 percent of the vote to Harriman's 44.

He was re-elected in 1962, defeating U.S. Attorney Robert Morgenthau, 53-44; 1966, defeating New York City Council President and former Queens District Attorney Frank O'Connor, 44-38 (former Congressman Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. got 8 percent); and 1970, defeating former Secretary of Labor and Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg, 52-40.

Rockefeller revamped State government, and vastly expanded the State University of New York (SUNY) system, which had been created by Governor Thomas E. Dewey in 1948. He was stronger on civil rights than most politicians of either major party, and baseball legend Jackie Robinson admired him so much that he worked for him. Harlem, Rochester and Buffalo each had race riots during his tenure, but he managed to keep things from spiraling out of control.

Rockefeller often feuded with John Lindsay, a fellow patrician and "Establishment Republican" who served as Mayor of New York City from 1966 to 1973, and I've often thought that each man would have been better and happier in the other man's job. Mario Cuomo, who lost to Ed Koch for Mayor in 1977 and beat him for Governor in 1982, once remarked that New York was the only city where the Mayor wanted to be the Governor and the Governor wanted to be the Mayor. And that has happened since.

Like many Governors of New York, before and after him, Nelson Rockefeller wanted to be President. Certainly, he was qualified. But the hard right wing of the Republican Party already didn't like him for his massive government spending. He would say, "I'm with them on taxes and Communism. What more do they want?"

He made a halfhearted run in 1960, then backed Vice President Richard Nixon to keep a conservative insurgent such as Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona from getting any traction. The conservatives never forgave him for this.

Nor did they forgive him for his private life. In 1930, he married Mary Todhunter Clark. They had 5 children. Mary divorced him on March 16, 1962 in Reno, Nevada, on grounds of "extreme mental cruelty." Had that happened, with those words, in a 24-hour news cycle era, Rockefeller would have been destroyed, and probably lost his bid for re-election that year.

It is believed that he was already fooling around with Margaretta Fitler, who was 19 years younger, considerably more attractive, and married to Dr. James Slater Murphy. Margaretta, known as "Happy," gave birth to Malinda Fitler Murphy in 1960. Even at the time, people around the Governor spoke of Malinda as being the Governor's daughter, not the Doctor's. And when Rocky and Happy married on May 4, 1963, only a little over a year after the divorce, many conservatives, with their self-appointment as America's moral arbiters, were horrified.

Although there were other candidates in the race -- including Governors William Scranton of Pennsylvania and George Romney of Michigan, and the party's 1960 Vice Presidential nominee, Ambassador and former Senator Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. of Massachusetts -- the 1964 nomination was always going to come down to Rockefeller vs. Goldwater. (It would not be Nixon: He had run for Governor of California in 1962, and lost, branding him a "loser.")

When Goldwater refused to campaign in the Oregon Primary, Rockefeller went, accompanied by signs saying, "He cared enough to come," and won. Goldwater knew that the California Primary was it: Win it, or you're out. But when Happy gave birth to Nelson Rockefeller Jr. just 3 days before the Primary, it bolstered the "morality" argument by reminding voters of Rocky's divorce and remarriage. Goldwater won California, and clinched the nomination.

The Republican Convention, at the Cow Palace outside San Francisco (they'd also met there in 1956), set the standard for future ugly GOP Conventions to come in 1992, 2004 and 2016. There was a proposed plank for the Party platform denouncing "extremist groups," specifically mentioning, on the left, the Communist Party; and, on the right, the Ku Klux Klan and the John Birch Society. The problem was, many of Goldwater's supporters were in the Birch Society.

When Rockefeller came on to speak in favor of the plank, Goldwater supporters in the seats tried to boo him off the stage. It was a disgraceful spectacle, but Rocky stood up to them, and finished his speech. The plank was easily voted down, making the GOP look like extremists.

Rockefeller ran for President again in 1968. But Nixon had made a comeback, having picked up some political I.O.U.s by supporting many of the Republican Congressional candidates who won in 1966, and so Rockefeller supporters reminded the undecided Delegates, "He has never lost an election." Of course, he had; just not a general election. But the hard right, with their new favorite son, Governor Ronald Reagan of California, not yet ready for the big time, settled for Nixon, and Rocky's last, perhaps best chance was gone.

In 1971, faced with the Attica Prison Riot, he decided he had to be as tough a Governor as Reagan. He sent the State Police in. The death toll was 43: 33 inmates, and 10 correctional officers and civilian employees. This helped to damage Rockefeller's reputation. He resigned on December 18, 1973, a year before his 4th term ended, and a few months after his draconian new drug laws infuriated people further.

On August 20, 1974, President Gerald Ford appointed him to be Vice President under the 25th Amendment to the Constitution. He was seriously opposed by both liberals in the Democratic Party and conservatives among his fellow Republicans, but there were enough people in the middle that, on December 19, he was confirmed, and sworn in.

Angry conservatives told Ford that they would not support him for a full term in 1976 if he kept Rockefeller on the ticket. He dumped Rockefeller, in favor of Senator Bob Dole of Kansas. Rockefeller served for the remainder of the Ford Presidency, until January 20, 1977. He then published a memoir, titled I Never Wanted to be Vice President of Anything.

In 1975, he welcomed a new employee onto his staff: Megan Marshack, a Los Angeles native who had been working as a radio news reporter for the Associated Press. His term as Vice President over, he took her back to his office at Rockefeller Center.

On January 26, 1979, Nelson Rockefeller died of a heart attack at his desk at Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan. Or so the initial story told. Actually, he had died a few blocks away, at a townhouse he owned at 13 West 54th Street. Marshack was with him at the time. In bed. He was 70, she was 25.

Marshack tried to stay out of the public eye, but she soon began dating cartoonist Charles Addams, creator of The Addams Family, who lived in the same New York apartment building. In 1992, she was a news writer for WCBS-Channel 2. In 1994, she was promoted to producer. In 2008, she married a journalist, and moved back to Los Angeles. She has never publicly commented on her relationship with Rockefeller.

Neither of Rockefeller's wives ever married again. Mary lived until 1999, Happy until 2015.

UPDATE: Marshack died in October 2, 2024, from liver failure, a few days short of turning 71, in Sacramento, California. A year earlier, she had lost her husband of 20 years, a fellow journalist, in a car crash. She had no children. She wrote her own obituary for The New York Times, and, while she seemed to have been proud of working for Rockefeller, she gave no hint as to being anything other than his employee.

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January 26, 1979 was a Friday. This was also the day the TV series The Dukes of Hazzard premiered. I have a separate entry for that event.

Baseball was out of season. Football season had ended 5 days earlier, when the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl XIII. There were 8 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Phoenix Suns, 108-107 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.

* The New Jersey Nets beat the New Orleans Hornets, 110-104 at the Rutgers Athletic Center (now the Jersey Mike's Arena) in Piscataway, New Jersey.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Boston Celtics, 119-106 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

* The San Diego Clippers beat the Chicago Bulls, 107-91 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Kansas City Kings beat the Washington Bullets, 142-128 at the Kemper Arena (now the Hy-Vee Arena) in Kansas City. Otis Birdsong of the Kings led all scorers on the night, with 39 points.

* And the San Antonio Spurs beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 125-108 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 119-107 at the McNichols Arena in Denver.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Golden State Warriors, 105-96 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

There were 2 games in the NHL. The Atlanta Flames beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-2 at The Omni in Atlanta. And the Vancouver Canucks beat the St. Louis Blues, 4-1 at the Pacific Coliseum in Denver.

And there were 2 games in the World Hockey Association. The Birmingham Bulls beat the New England Whalers, 5-4 at the Birmingham-Jefferson County Civic Center (now the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex). And the Cincinnati Stingers beat the Edmonton Oilers, 5-2 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.