6 / 36
V
irginia
C
apitol
C
onnections
, S
pring
2016
6
Emily Couric:
What might have been?
By Bonnie Atwood
Her exit stunned the political world.
Emily Couric was a rising star in the
Democratic Party of Virginia. She was
admired—loved—for her intelligence,
her compassion, her spirit. She was more
than a star. She was a glittering promise
of a new Commonwealth of Virginia. She
was positioned to become the first woman
lieutenant governor, and there was serious
talk that she would solidify her place in the
history books as the first female governor. It
was like nothing could slow her down. She
seemed unstoppable.
Those who knew her remember the televised press conference.
She was calm and pretty. It was almost like she was announcing a
new legislative initiative, instead of what she said:
“I am ending my
campaign due to my diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.”
Is that what she said?
we asked ourselves.
Did I hear that right?
I think we all had the same reaction:
There’s some mistake. It’s not
true.
We didn’t think we heard her. And then she said it again.
with two other cheerleaders and the caption “
Guys will make passes
at girls who wear glasses.
” She shows up again and again in the
Girls’ Athletic Association, the honor societies, the cheerleading
squad, and more.
She is remembered as very smart and popular but, in the words of
our day, not “stuck up.” She may well have been the most liked girl
in the class. Her impact was deep:
“Emily Couric was the best cheerleader and captain of the team,”
said Mimi Lodge.
“She had long legs and she could jump higher and
do mid air splits better than any of the other cheerleaders. She smiled
the whole time she was cheering, and in spite of a mouthful of braces,
it was a beautiful smile.”
After one of the tryouts, Lodge didn’t make the team. She
remembers it this way:
“The locker room was full of laughter and hugging until the
girls saw me and quieted down. They knew I would never cheer. I
was trying to hurry and get out of there so they could resume their
celebration, but I was a little shaken that not one of the adult judges
or the girls came over and said anything to me, and then, one person
did, and that one person was Emily Couric….Emily Couric had
taught me a lesson about compassion.”
And this, from Mike Gleason:
“You know, the nicest girl I ever
knew in my life was Emily Couric. I never dated her. I never went out
with her. But she was always pleasant.”
“I remember Emily as being always very soft-spoken and polite,”
said Jim Loughman.
Shirley Costley listed phrases that come to her mind when
thinking of Emily:
“mature, quiet, smart, she seemed to always have
her act together, not a gossip, stable and dependable.”
College, Career, Reunions
We knew she was the crème de la crème when she was accepted
to Smith College. There she majored in botany, but she became a
writer, first for an agency, and then freelancing, specializing in books
about the legal profession. She wrote “The Trial Lawyers” and “The
Divorce Lawyers.” Couric relocated to Charlottesville with her
husband, cardiologist George Beller.
Couric was treasured at the high school reunions. The class photo
at the twentieth shows her in a dazzling strapless dress, and with “big
hair,” and gorgeous. She had two sons from a first marriage, had been
divorced, and now she was married to Beller. She was happy.
Politics
It was about this time that Emily Couric, now 47, became a
name on the ballot in Charlottesville. She held a seat on the City
School Board from 1985 to 1991. By the fall of 1995, she was
running a campaign for the 25th District of the Virginia Senate and
labeling herself as a moderate Democrat. At the time, Republican
George Allen was governor, and the Democrats had the edge in the
legislature.
The election was an upset: she defeated incumbent Republican
Ed Robb. It was also significant because it prevented an historic
Republican takeover of the Senate. Who was this rising star? Even
The Wall Street Journal
was beginning to take notice. Major interests
were education, health care, and environmentalism. She initiated
the neuro-trauma legislation, and payment for screening for colon
cancer. Even as a newcomer, she began to be touted as a candidate for
lieutenant governor (literally, the next day) as a running mate for Don
Beyer. Her campaign was described as “juggernaut,” and her victory
was attributed to more than two years of her own efforts to build a
contingent of 600 volunteers.
At that point, she was hesitant to talk about statewide office, but
that changed later when she made it known she was interested. She
started appearing on national television. Her friend, Delegate Barnie
Day, was quoted in the Richmond Times-Dispatch as saying that
“her ambition was off the scale.”
Mary Broz Vaughan was her legislative aide and had this to
The Teenager
In full disclosure, this writer has known Emily Couric since we
were 15 years old, or maybe as young as 12. We were classmates
at Yorktown Senior High, Arlington, Virginia, Class of 1965. To my
class, she was not a would-be governor. She was not a senator. She
was not Katie’s sister. She was Emily, the cheerleader, and very nice
and smart girl. She was all ours.
Yorktown was Arlington’s smallest public high school, known
for its high standards, and its political cache. The daughter of
Virginia Delegate Mary Marshall was one of our classmates, as was
the son of Delegate Dorothy McDiarmid. Everybody knew Emily.
She shows up many times in “
Grenadier
,” the yearbook: National
Honor Society, Math Honor Society, Latin Honor Society, Student
Council, Pep Club, Cheerleader, the list goes on. And there’s her
photo: a dark, shiny Sixties bangs and flip, swished to one side,
and that million-dollar smile. She’s even in an advertisement for
Raibourn Opticians, our “Optical Fashion Center.” She is pictured
Emily Couric brings pep to
her high school class.
Emily Couric,
Yorktown High School
Class of 1965.