Joan Mondale enters hospice care

Joan Mondale, wife of former Vice President Walter Mondale, entered end-of-life hospice care on Friday, her church said in a statement obtained by The Associated Press.

Mondale, 83, was a strong advocate for culture during her husband’s tenure who earned the nickname “Joan of Art.”

{mosads}Her family asked that her privacy be respected as her “life on this earth moves peacefully to its close,” according to the statement from the Mondales’ longtime church, Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis.

Walter Mondale was on the ticket with Jimmy Carter when they defeated Gerald Ford and Bob Dole in 1976. The pair lost to Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush four years later, and Mondale suffered one of the biggest political defeats in U.S. history in his race against Reagan in 1984, winning only his home state of Minnesota and the District of Columbia.