Perhaps the most enduring moment for Mrs. Dukakis during the campaign was the debate questions raised about her. Bernard Shaw of CNN, the debate host, asked Dokakis:
“No, I won't, Bernard,” Dukakis replied with no emotion before reaffirming his opposition to the death penalty and discussing his record of crime. Analysts have heard the ears of The Response Tone, one of the worst in the history of presidential debate, and said it will help sink Dukakis' chances against Vice President George H.W. Bush, his foe of states and presidency.
Kitty Dukakis was embarrassed, she later told reporters. She was also alive and called the question outrageous and inappropriate.
“Thank God that I am not a candidate,” she said passionately, “Because I don't know what I did.”
Katherine Dixon was born on December 26, 1936 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and grew up in nearby Brookline. She worshipped her father, Harry Ellis Dixon. Harry Ellis Dixon was the first violinist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the conductor of the Boston Pops.
She had a more inspiring relationship with her mother, Jane (Goldberg) Dixon. In her first book, “Now You Know,” published in 1990, Mrs. Dukakis recalled that her mother told her that she was pretty, but her younger sister Jinny had a personality. Dukakis said similar comments and many others gave her the low self-esteem that has plagued her for the rest of her life.
