Terry
Terry was George McGovern’s daughter who, when she was 45 years old, froze to death while intoxicated. McGovern, who ran for President in 1972, learned a hard fact while reviewing Terry’s alcoholic history, that "...life is not only precious, it is fragile and uncertain."
Terry started drinking and taking drugs when she was still in high school, but later during her college years, she helped her father campaign in South Dakota to become a U.S. senator. That was in 1968, the year Robert Kennedy was running for president but was shot and killed while in Los Angeles. George McGovern gave a memorial speech for him some days later, but on that particular morning the headlines of the Los Angeles Times read, "Senator’s Daughter [Terry] Arrested on Drug Charge."
The charge was finally dropped, and Terry helped her father in 1972 when he was running for president. In one of her campaign speeches, she exclaimed, "My father is not a great man, but the kind of things he believes in are great."
Terry stayed sober from 1980 to 1988 while working for the Goodwill Industries. That’s when she met Ray. They lived together in Madison, Wisconsin, and had two daughters. But when Ray left her, she went back to drinking. He was given custody of the children, and she could visit them from time to time. But if Terry was drinking, the girls would take care of her. She loved her daughters dearly, but she could not love herself. She once admitted "I am the problem and I am the solution," but the problem prevailed.
During Terry’s last years, her father and mother were advised to separate themselves from her and her alcoholism. But they later regretted that move. During that time, Terry told her sister, "My body no longer recognizes any food other than alcohol." Then on December 12, 1994, she had been drinking steadily all afternoon in Madison, and when she left a bar that night, she stumbled in the deep snow and froze to death.
George McGovern couldn’t answer the age-old question of whether alcoholism caused depression or depression caused alcoholism. His daughter suffered from both, but he suspected that "Terry was born with genes that made her vulnerable to drug addiction."
McGovern’s book reveals not only his love and concern for Terry, but also his support for Alcoholics Anonymous and other counseling programs for victims of alcoholism and their loved ones. Terry was written in 1996.