Abigail McCarthy


Abigail Quigley McCarthy was an American academic and writer, best known as the wife of politician and presidential contender Eugene McCarthy. She predeceased her estranged husband by almost five years.

Early life and education

Abigail Quigley was born in Wabasha, Minnesota, April 16, 1915. She graduated as a Phi Beta Kappa from the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1936. She received her M.A. from the University of Minnesota in 1942 and did postgraduate work at the University of Chicago and the Middlebury School of English.

Career

She met her future husband while working as a teacher in Mandan, North Dakota. They married on June 5, 1945, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Their first home was in Watkins, Minnesota, at an agriculture commune formed by Catholic couples. Following their separation, they lived separately, though they never divorced.
McCarthy was a Catholic author, educator, and activist. She wrote several successful books and was a regular columnist for Commonweal, a liberal Catholic magazine, from 1974 to 1999. She wrote reviews for The New York Times and The Washington Post. She founded and was first president of "Church Women United", a lay Catholic group.

Personal life

Eugene and Abigail McCarthy had five children: Christopher Joseph McCarthy, Michael Benet McCarthy, Ellen McCarthy, Margaret Alice McCarthy, and the late Mary Abigail McCarthy.
McCarthy died in Washington, D.C. on February 1, 2001, at her home on Connecticut Avenue. The Abigail Quigley McCarthy Center for Women was established at her alma mater, St. Catherine University, in her honor.