Margaret Thatcher dead at 87
Often referenced for popular quotes like “Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t” and “If you want something said, ask a man … if you want something done, ask a woman,” the United Kingdom’s first and only prime minister Baroness Margaret Thatcher has passed away.
She served from 1979 to 1990 as leader of the Conservative Party. Our very own former U.S. President Ronald Reagan shared her politics – pro-corporate political philosophies – and valued her advice. Thatcher was no nonsense and was dubbed the Iron Lady by the Russian press because she stood strong and stalwart before the nation she dubbed the “Evil Empire” of the Soviet Union before it’s collapse.
In 1984, the Irish Republic Army plotted her murder, planting a bomb at the Conservative Conference. A gallant go-getter, Thatcher gave her speech the next day after insisting the conference continue.
Although she was forced out of office and lost support during her third term due to efforts to implement a fixed rate local tax, or poll tax, it didn’t affect her influence and power. Throughout the United Kingdom and the United States, Thatcher was beloved and well respected.
She suffered her first stroke in 2002 and retired from public office. In December 2012, she was hospitalized after a procedure to remove a growth in her bladder. She died on Monday, April 8, 2013 after suffering a massive stroke. Her children, Mark and Carol Thatcher, said she died peacefully in a statement to press.
