Edward Moore Kennedy, February 22, 1932 (Boston, Mass.) – August 25, 2009 (Hyannis Port, Mass.)
VP candidate for Independent (1976)
Running mate with nominee: Meda Magnifico (b. 1920)
Popular vote: ? (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
An actress in South Gate, Calif. using the stage name of Meda Magnifico ran for President in 1976. There are only sketchy details about her past. Born in Kentucky around 1920 she later lived in San Antonio, Texas where she had a Japanese servant for many years named Roy Suyehiro.
In 1962 she penned a book entitled The Human Saint: A Biography of the Empress of All the Russias (Boston House Publishers Corporation, probably self-published) and seemed to have some kind of family connection to Russia. She claimed to be the great granddaughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
For some reason she sometimes called herself Mrs. J. Edgar Hoover. She said her childhood tutors were Gen. Pershing, First Lady Mrs. Woodrow Wilson, Bernard Baruch and Albert Einstein which accounted for her IQ of 230. On her 18th birthday in 1938 she was appointed, she alleged, as a chief advisor and aide to President Roosevelt. In July 1941 she was made a "Female Commanding General of the US Marine Corps." She said she was a five-star (sometimes six-star) general, hence her title General M. Magnifico as the newspapers called her.
In addition to being a Secret Service agent, one her press releases stated: "Gen. Magnifico is the holder of four congressional medals of honor, during World War II. She made 47 trips by parachute alone behind enemy lines." According to her, she was sent on a secret mission to Russia that resulted in WWII ending five years earlier than it otherwise would have.
A marriage record exists for Meda Magnifico Romanov to Carl William Roof (1897-1988) in Clark County, Nev. (basically, Las Vegas) on May 25, 1974.
By 1976 the 5 foot 3 inch tall Magnifico was adorned with goggles and a "medal-bedecked" uniform. Columnist William Christofferson described her as "dressed in a uniform with about 50 pounds of medals, and somewhat resembles Bette Davis in her movie role as Baby Jane." She sent letters to officials with her fingerprints in lipstick. Her alleged secretary was Patricia Lowe the widow of B-film and TV scriptwriter Sherman Lowe (1894-1968).
General Magnifico originally held out hope to be US Sen. Ted Kennedy's (D-Mass.) running mate, but it was apparent he was not going to run for President in 1976, so she was forced to run for the position herself "at the extreme urging of those involved in the security of this nation." In May 1976 she flipped the ticket and drafted Sen. Kennedy as her own VP, although he apparently did not know this.
She was certified as a write-in candidate in California and gained a tiny number of votes on Election day. Kennedy, meanwhile, would run for President in 1980 but by that time General Meda Magnifico had vanished from the radar.
Election history:
1962-2009 - US Senate (Mass.) (Democratic)
1980 - Democratic nomination for US President - defeated
Other occupations: soldier (US Army), attorney, Assistant District Attorney for Suffolk County Mass.
Buried: Arlington National Cemetery
Notes:
Born on George Washington's 200th birthday.
The first US Senator to have a homepage on Internet.
In 1980 Kennedy was the VP choice for Princess C.T. Running Water Rockefeller of Covington, Ky.,
but she was running as a Democrat in the primaries rather than a third party, thus making that
campaign sadly ineligible for our profiles.
