Brown, Muriel Buck Humphrey, 1912-1998

Muriel Fay Humphrey Brown (née Buck; February 20, 1912 – September 20, 1998) was an American politician who served as the Second Lady of the United States and as a U.S. Senator from Minnesota. She was married to the 38th Vice President of the United States, Hubert Humphrey. Following her husband's death, she was appointed to his seat in the United States Senate, serving for most of the year 1978, thus becoming the first woman to serve as a Senator from Minnesota, and the only Second Lady of the United States to hold public office. After leaving office, she remarried and took the name Muriel Humphrey Brown.

Born Muriel Fay Buck in Huron, South Dakota, she attended Huron College from 1931 to 1932, meeting a young pharmacist named Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. during that time. On September 3, 1936, they married; within a year, Muriel began helping to fund her husband’s college education at the University of Minnesota and his graduate studies at Louisiana State University. Hubert Humphrey went on to teach political science at the University of Minnesota and at Macalester College during World War II. He also served as the state chief of the Minnesota war service program and as assistant director of the War Manpower Commission in 1943. Two years later, he launched a long and storied political career, rising from mayor of Minneapolis to United States Senator and, ultimately, Vice President. Muriel Humphrey played an indirect part in her husband’s early political career, keeping a certain distance between her role as mother and Hubert’s public life, but also assisting him as an informal advisor.

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