Eleanor Mondale, the daughter of former Vice President Walter Mondale, has passed away at the age of 51. Mondale, who was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2005, died in her home in Minnesota.
Mondale was a media magnet and an aspiring actress in her younger years. She scored bit parts on shows like “Three’s Company,” and “Dynasty,” and her party girl ways were partially documented in Warren Zevon’s posthumous biography, “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon.”
Mondale also worked in broadcasting as an entertainment reporter. She started working for WCCO-TV in Minneapolis, but was forced out after she published the controversial article, “Walter and Joan’s Wild Child.”
In the article, Mondale wrote:
“I like to get wild. But it’s not murder, and I don’t do drugs.”
Mondale was hounded by the media throughout her life. In an interview with a St. Paul magazine in 2006, Mondale said:
“As crazy as it was, what hurt most were the rumors that weren’t true. I mean, I had people telling me they’d heard stories of me swimming naked at parties. You can imagine how a conservative TV station like WCCO reacted to stuff like that.”
According to MSNBC, Mondale’s entertainment career continued after WCCO-TV with spots on WLOL-FM, E! Entertainment, ESPN, and “This Morning” on CBS. Mondale eventually returned to Minnesota to co-host a weekday morning show on WCCO-AM with Susie Jones.
Jones said:
“She went through quite a lot. Even with all that, she kept her sense of dignity and grace and humor. She was unpredictable. She was spontaneous. She would crack me up – she would say some things that were just outrageous. Even as she was dying, she was funny.”
Mondale stumped for her father Walter in 1984 during his failed campaign to unseat Ronald Reagan. She also helped her father in 2002 during his last campaign.
