WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- The wife of former Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., has dropped the 'Kerry' from her name, the Washington Times said Thursday.
The National Council for Research on Women is featuring what is has billed as "a conversation with Teresa Heinz" prior to its March 1 Women for Make a Difference awards dinner.
"Teresa Heinz will speak to her commitment to women's economic security, including Social Security and retirement," the council said in its announcement, which omitted her husband's name in several references.
When asked about the omission, NCRW spokesman Tamara Rodriquez-Reichberg told the Times that, "I just checked, and she no longer uses her [entire] last name; only during the [presidential] campaign did she use Kerry."
Born Maria Teresa Thiersten Simoes-Ferreira in Mozambique, Heinz and Kerry were married in 1995. Her first husband, U.S. Sen. John Heinz, III, R-Pa., was killed in a 1991 plane crash.
