Lawmaker later served as envoy

Anne C. Martindell, 93, a late-blooming lawmaker and diplomat, died June 11 in Princeton, N.J., her son told the New York Times.

Born Anne Clark in 1914 in New York City to a federal judge and a railroad heiress, she attended Smith College in the 1930s. Her parents insisted she drop out to marry stockbroker George C. Scott Jr. The couple had three children, then divorced after 13 years of marriage.

She married Jackson Martindell, the publisher of Who’s Who, in 1948 and became involved in politics in the 1960s.

She was the New Jersey chairwoman for Sen. George McGovern’s 1972 presidential campaign, leading the state delegation to that year’s Democratic convention. In 1973, she scored an upset victory over a Republican incumbent to win a state Senate seat, which she held for four years.

An early endorsement and campaign work for President Carter helped her receive an appointment as director of the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

She was named ambassador to New Zealand and Western Samoa in 1979.

Martindell returned to Smith and earned a bachelor’s degree in American studies in 2002, at age 87.

Her memoirs were published last month by Boxed Books.