New York’s first female lieutenant governor, Mary Anne Krupsak, has died at age 92

GENEVA, N.Y. (AP) — Mary Ann Krupsak, who became the first woman elected to statewide office in New York when she was voted in as lieutenant governor in 1974, has died. She was 92.

Krupsak died Saturday at her home on Seneca Lake, according to an online obituary published Thursday.

The lifelong Democrat served one term with Gov. Hugh Carey before announcing she would challenge him for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 1978. She lost in the primary.

Krupsak was born in Schenectady and received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Rochester, a master’s degree from Boston University and a law degree from the University of Chicago. She was elected to the New York state Assembly in 1968 and served in both the Assembly and Senate before running for lieutenant governor.

Among volunteers on her campaign was New York’s current governor, Kathy Hochul, who offered her condolences via X.

New York's first female lieutenant governor, Mary Anne Krupsak, has died at age 92 | iNFOnews.ca
FILE — New York Mayor Edward Koch holds a proclamation for “Women’s Equality Week,” at a City Hall ceremony, Aug. 28, 1978 in New York, accompanied by congresswoman Bella Abzug, left, suffragist Isola Reid Doric, 86; and New York Lt. Gov. Mary Anne Krupsak, right. (AP Photo/David Pickoff, File)

“I worked on her campaign while in high school in 1974, and I was proud to follow in her footsteps forty years later,” the Democrat said.

While in office, Krupsak worked to save New York City’s Radio City Music Hall from demolition, helping to secure National Historic Landmark status.

After leaving office, she was a senior partner at the law firm Krupsak & Mahoney and a senior partner and co-founder of Krupsak, Wass deCzege & Associates.

Her husband of 23 years, Edwin Margolis, a former state judge, died in 1993.

Funeral services are scheduled for Monday.

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