Margolies-Mezvinsky, Marjorie, 1942-

<p>A longtime television journalist, Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky won election to the U.S. House in 1992. Her brief congressional career turned, quite literally, on a single vote when the Pennsylvania Congresswoman abruptly backed the William J. (Bill) Clinton administration’s budget after being an outspoken critic of the legislation.</p>

<p>Marjorie Margolies was born on June 21, 1942, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, daughter of Herbert and Mildred Margolies. “Margie always kept me busy,” her mother said, recalling a schedule that involved multiple ballet lessons each week, sports, cheerleading, honor roll academics, and finishing junior high two years early. After graduating from Baltimore’s Forest Park High School in 1959, Margolies earned a BA from the University of Pennsylvania in 1963. She worked as a television reporter for a Philadelphia NBC affiliate in 1967 and, from 1969 to 1970, she was a CBS News Foundation Fellow at Columbia University.</p>

<p>In 1970, at age 28, she covered a story on Korean orphans and was so moved by the experience that she became the first single woman in the United States to adopt a foreign child, a Korean girl. Several years later, she adopted a Vietnamese girl. Covering another story on adopted children, Margolies met then-Iowa Representative Edward Maurice Mezvinsky, and they married in 1975. Together the couple raised 11 children: Margolies’s two children, Mezvinsky’s four children from a previous marriage, two sons born to them, and three Vietnamese boys whom they adopted together. Figuring in the number of refugee families that they sponsored over the years, Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky estimated that her household had provided for 25 children. In 1976 she testified before Congress and was credited with helping change legislation on adoption and immigration practices incorporated into the 1976 Immigration and Nationalities Act. When Edward Mezvinsky lost his re-election bid in 1976, the couple settled in Philadelphia. Margolies- Mezvinsky commuted weekly to Washington, DC, where she worked as a correspondent for 12 years for the local NBC television affiliate, focusing on congressional issues. She also worked for a Philadelphia television station and for NBC’s Today Show in New York City. During her career, she won five Emmy Awards. She also published three books, including They Came to Stay (1976), about her experiences as an adoptive parent and a supporter of immigrant families. Marjorie and Edward divorced in 2007.</p>

<p>Marjorie Margolies (/mɑːrˈɡoʊliːz/; formerly Margolies-Mezvinsky; born June 21, 1942) is a fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Fels Institute of Government, an adjunct faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania, and a women's rights activist. She is a former journalist and a Democratic politician. From 1993 to 1995, she was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Pennsylvania's 13th congressional district.</p>

<p>She is best remembered for casting the deciding vote in favor of President Bill Clinton’s 1993 budget proposal.</p>

<p>Margolies was born in Philadelphia. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1963. She was a broadcast journalist for over twenty-four years, winning five Emmy Awards for her work. She worked as a television journalist at WCAU-TV from 1967 to 1969, was a CBS News Foundation Fellow, Columbia University from 1969 to 1970, and then worked for WRC-TV from 1975 until 1990. She was also a correspondent for the Today Show.</p>