Nancy Kissinger, widow of Nixon Secretary of State, dies at age 92

Nancy (Maginnes) Kissinger, 92, consort to one of the most politically polarizing figures of the 20th century, died Thursday at her long-time home in South Kent.

Mrs. Kissinger was widow of former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger but was a powerful political influencer in her own right. 

At the time of Henry Kissinger’s death, Ken Cooper, a friend of the couple, recalled that Kissinger and his wife were a team. “Nancy and Henry would finish each other’s sentences,” he said. “They were very affectionate, very fond and respectful of each other. And they made sure they shared credit for anything they did.”

Her husband served under the Nixon and Ford administrations during and after the height of the Vietnam conflict and remained an internationally recognized—if controversial—statesman until his death at their Kent home in November 2023 at the age of 100. 

He advised 12 presidents, from John F. Kennedy to Joe Biden. His cunning and a ruthlessly practical approach to international relations caused him to be heralded by some and reviled by others. His secret negotiations with China led to Richard Nixon’s most famous foreign policy achievement and was designed to isolate the Soviet Union. It set the stage for today’s complex and sometimes fraught relationship between the dominant economies in the world.

His wife, who received a B.A. in history in 1955 from Mount Holyoke College and who later studied at Harvard University where she met her future husband, took a sabbatical from her Rockefeller research job in the late 1960s to study at the Sorbonne. She had a distinguished career as a political aide, researcher and philanthropist, working closely with Nelson Rockefeller and serving as a key intellectual advisor and global partner to her husband.

She married Kissinger on March 30, 1974, ten years after his divorce from his first wife, and was widely known as a politically savvy foreign policy specialist who, though never officially a U.S. Diplomat, frequently traveled alongside her husband on high-level international diplomatic missions to Russia, the Middle East and other parts of the world.

When not unknotting political crises, the Kissingers maintained a home in Kent. They bought the Henderson Blueberry Farm on Henderson Road in the early 1980s and, when not engaged on the world stage, Kissinger and his wife interacted with their fellow townspeople. They supported the Kent Volunteer Fire Department and attended its former carnival every year, where they would stop for a grinder at the Rod and Gun Club booth before going on to the Bingo tent to play with family, employees and friends such as the late designer Oskar De La Renta.

Following his death, she continued to attend the annual Firemen’s Ball when her health allowed.

Early in his Kent residency, Kissinger used his vaunted diplomatic skills to smooth over a local kerfuffle over blueberries growing on his property. There was an outcry from the community about the destruction of the blueberry bushes that had a been a staple of Pick-Your-Own in Kent for years. Kissinger donated the blueberry bushes to Kent School, and they were planted at the campus atop Skiff Mountain (now Marvelwood School).  Local residents are still welcome to harvest their fruit. 

Perhaps serendipitously, the blueberries continue to pay homage to the Kissingers’ Kent legacy, coming to fruition in 2026 just as Mrs. Kissinger’s life waned. 

Mrs. Kissinger is survived by her step-children, David and Elizabeth, and five grandchildren.