{{For|the educational publisher|Gale (publisher)}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Gale Thomson | nickname = | image = Senator Bob Smith with former Governor Meldrim Thomson (cropped).jpg | image_size = 150px | order1 = First Lady of New Hampshire | term_label1 = In role | term_start1 = January 4, 1973 | term_end1 = January 4, 1979 | predecessor1 = Dorothy Peterson | successor1 = Irene Gallen | governor1 = Meldrim Thomson Jr. | party = Republican | alma_mater = | birth_date = {{birth date|1919|5|17}} | birth_place = Brooklyn, New York, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2010|3|8|1919|5|17}} | death_place = Orford, New Hampshire, U.S. | spouse = {{marriage|Meldrim Thomson Jr.|1938|April 19, 2001|end=d}} | children = 6 | relations = | signature = }}
'''Anne Gale Kelly Thomson''' (17 May 1919 – March 8, 2010)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Obituary for Anne Gale Kelly Thomson at Ricker Funeral Home |url=https://www.rickerfh.com/obituary/6172197?lud=62B6E889681ED13BFBCAC0E66ADE3AE6 |access-date=2024-06-15 |website=www.rickerfh.com |language=en}}</ref> was an American public and political figure, anti-tax activist, businesswoman, and benefactor. Thomson served as the First Lady of New Hampshire from 1973 until 1979 during the tenure of former Governor Meldrim Thomson, Jr.<ref name=bg>{{cite news |first=Norma |last=Love |title=Gale Thomson, 90, widow of former N.H. governor |url=http://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/obituaries/articles/2010/03/10/gale_thomson_90_widow_of_former_nh_governor/ |agency=Associated Press |newspaper=Boston Globe |date=2010-03-10 |access-date=2010-03-21}}</ref>
==Early and personal life== Thomson was born '''Anne Gale Kelly'''<ref name=nt>{{cite news |first=<!-- N/A --> |last=<!-- N/A --> |title=Anne Gale Thomson |url=http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/obituaries/665192-225/anne-gale-thomson.html |newspaper=Nashua Telegraph |date=2010-03-10 |access-date=2010-03-21}}</ref> in Brooklyn, New York, in 1919.<ref name=bg/> She was the oldest child of parents William and Anne Kelly.<ref name=nt/> She graduated from high school two years early and took a position with the Edward Thompson Law Book Company, a law publishing company in Brooklyn.<ref name=nt/>
Kelly met her future husband, Meldrim Thomson, Jr., while she was working as a secretary at the Edward Thompson Law Book Company.<ref name=bg/><ref name=nt/> The couple married in 1938 and had six children during their marriage – Peter, David, Thomas, Marion, Janet, and Robb.<ref name=bg/><ref name=nt/> The family initially resided in Brooklyn and Stony Brook, New York.<ref name=nt/>
In 1954, Thomson and her husband decided not to raise their family in New York City.<ref name=bg/> They moved with their six children to the Mt. Cube Farm, a 19th-century farmhouse in Orford, New Hampshire, in the fall of 1954,<ref name=nt/> where Thomson and her husband lived for the rest of her life.<ref name=bg/><ref name=ul>{{cite news |first=John |last=Distaso |title=Gale Thomson's sons, state officials pay tribute to her grace and service |url=http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Gale+Thomson's+sons%2C+state+officials+pay+tribute+to+her+grace+and+service&articleId=69915192-f2aa-475f-8af2-54d36114b081 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160130144829/http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Gale+Thomson%27s+sons%2C+state+officials+pay+tribute+to+her+grace+and+service&articleId=69915192-f2aa-475f-8af2-54d36114b081 |archive-date=2016-01-30 |url-status=dead|newspaper=New Hampshire Union Leader |date=2010-03-09 |access-date=2010-03-23 }}</ref><ref name=bg2/> As Mel Thomson's book editing company, Equity Publishing, grew, Gale Thomson largely ran the day-to-day operations of the farm and family.<ref name=stpns>{{cite news|title=Looking back at Gale Thomson|url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=95632 |work=Journal Opinion (STPNS) |date=2010-03-17 |access-date=2015-04-16}}</ref>
==Political and business career== Thomson became the First Lady of New Hampshire in 1973 when her husband took office. She was known to entertain guests with pancakes served with maple syrup collected at her Mt. Cube Farm in Orford.<ref name=bg/><ref name=nt/> Gale Thomson (and her husband) used the breakfasts as a way to network and lobby legislators and businesspeople on behalf of her husband's political goals.<ref name=stpns/> She notably lobbied Greek magnate Aristotle Onassis, who had announced plans to construct an oil refinery in New Hampshire, reportedly winning him over with a bottle of Blue Nun, an inexpensive wine.<ref name=stpns/>
Thomson remained First Lady until they moved out of Bridges House at the end of his tenure in 1979 after three consecutive terms.<ref name=bg/>
Gale Thomson remained a vocal supporter of Mel Thomson's policies, especially after his death in 2001.<ref name=stpns/> She was strong proponent of the former governor's tax policies, including "The Pledge," in which he had promised to veto any state income tax or sales tax.<ref name=stpns/> Thomson also defended her late husband against charges of racism, including in a 2001 profile published in The "New Hampshire Century: "Concord Monitor" Profiles of One Hundred People Who Shaped It."<ref name=gbook/> The former Governor had visited South Africa under apartheid rule, after leaving office and had come under fire for referring to the late Martin Luther King Jr. as a person "of immoral character" and a "leading agent of Communism."<ref name=gbook/> Gale Thomson dismissed the accusations of racism against her husband, noting that he had appointed Ivorey Cobb, the first African American judge in New Hampshire state history.<ref name="gbook">{{Cite book|title=The New Hampshire century : Concord monitor profiles of one hundred people who shaped it|date=2001|publisher=University Press of New England|others=Felice Belman, Mike Pride|isbn=1-58465-087-7|location=Hanover, NH|pages=219|oclc=45420198}}</ref>
The former First Lady published op-eds and other opinion pieces in the ''New Hampshire Union Leader''.<ref name=stpns/>
In 2000, Thomson, a prominent state political figure and activist, expressed concern that New Hampshire residents were beginning to ignore their responsibilities as the first state to hold a presidential primary.<ref name=hcourant>{{cite news|first=Liz |last=Halloran|title=In Villages, Vote Doesn't Hit Home |url=https://www.courant.com/2000/01/31/in-villages-vote-doesnt-hit-home/ |work=Hartford Courant |date=2000-01-31 |access-date=2015-04-16}}</ref> She told the ''Hartford Courant'', "People are apathetic.... The working people here, for the most part, don't get too involved in the primary – they're a little bored with it.... I was born the year that women were first given the chance to vote. It's not to be squandered."<ref name=hcourant/>
In 2005, Gale Thomson, her son, Tom Thomson, and other homeowners drew international attention when their homes were levied with a so-called local "view tax" in Orford, New Hampshire.<ref name=bg2/><ref name=telegraph>{{cite news|first=Philip|last=Sherwell |title=Veteran anti-tax campaigners rally to fight the 'view levy' in New Hampshire |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1502894/Veteran-anti-tax-campaigners-rally-to-fight-the-view-levy-in-New-Hampshire.html |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=2005-11-13 |access-date=2015-04-16}}</ref> Gale Thomson's home, where she had lived at Mt. Cube Farm since 1954, was appraised with a new $100,000 tax assessment based on the panoramic view from the house.<ref name=telegraph/> Gale Thomson joined with other property owners, including David Bischoff, to form the "Axe the View Tax" campaign to challenge the proposed "view factor" tax.<ref name=telegraph/> Thomson told a British newspaper, ''The Daily Telegraph'', "My husband would have been furious. He'd have supported these boys all the way."<ref name=telegraph/>
Thomson ran a maple syrup business based out of her Mt. Cube Farm in Orford.<ref name=bg2>{{cite news |first=Jenna |last=Russell |title=A tax bill as big as the view, Assessors in N.H. add more for beauty |url=http://archive.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/12/28/a_tax_bill_as_big_as_the_view/ |newspaper=Boston Globe |date=2005-12-28 |access-date=2010-03-21 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>
===Public and private sector philanthropy=== She served as a trustee of the Youth Development Center, the Robert Frost Farm in Derry, and the Vermont-New Hampshire Visiting Nurse Alliance.<ref name=nt/><ref name=stpns/> She was also an appointed member of the Governor's Lilac and Wildflower Commission, which was established by Governor John H. Sununu in 1984.<ref name=nt/><ref name=bg2/>
===2008 presidential campaign=== In December 2007, Thomson endorsed former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney for U.S. President during the 2008 Republican presidential primaries.<ref name=uscb/><ref name=ul_oped>{{cite news |first=Gale |last=Thomson |title=Gale Thomson: On taxes, Mitt Romney really gets it |url=http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Gale+Thomson%3A+On+taxes%2C+Mitt+Romney+really+gets+it&articleId=57623d5d-3e8f-430b-b47e-d50b40e20a9d |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110522193842/http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Gale+Thomson%3A+On+taxes%2C+Mitt+Romney+really+gets+it&articleId=57623d5d-3e8f-430b-b47e-d50b40e20a9d |archive-date=2011-05-22 |url-status=dead|newspaper=New Hampshire Union Leader |date=2010-03-21 |access-date=2010-03-22 }}</ref> Romney and his campaign touted Gale Thomson's endorsement saying, "I am honored to have the endorsement of Gale Thomson, one of New Hampshire's most respected leaders. She and her husband faithfully served the people of the Granite State and worked to bring fiscally responsible policies to the State Capitol. I look forward to working with her to bring conservative change to Washington."<ref name=uscb>{{cite news|title=Former New Hampshire First Lady Gale Thomson Endorses Governor Mitt Romney |url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=95632 |work=Mitt Romney presidential campaign, 2008 (University of California, Santa Barbara) |date=2007-12-28 |access-date=2015-04-16}}</ref> Romney had previously traveled to Thomson's home to meet with her on February 1, 2007, to seek her endorsement.<ref name=gwu>{{cite news|title=Former Gov. Mitt Romney: New Hampshire Visits through January 8, 2008 |url=http://www.gwu.edu/~action/2008/nh08/nhvromney.html |work=George Washington University |date=2008-01-08 |access-date=2015-04-16}}</ref><ref name=nhjournal>{{cite news|first=John |last=DiStaso|title=Granite Reports: As frontrunner, Romney would have been daily target of GOP competitors |url=http://nhjournal.com/granite-reports-as-frontrunner-romney-would-have-been-target/ |work=NH Journal |date=2015-01-31 |access-date=2015-04-17}}</ref>
===Death and honors=== Gale Thomson died of congestive heart failure at her home at the Mt. Cube family farm in Orford, New Hampshire, on March 8, 2010, at the age of 90.<ref name=ul/> March 8 – on what would have been her husband's 98th birthday.<ref name=ul/> She was survived by her six children, eighteen grandchildren and twenty-eight great-grandchildren.<ref name=nt/> New Hampshire Governor John Lynch ordered all state flags lowered to half-staff in her honor.<ref name=bg3>{{cite news |first=<!-- N/A --> |last=<!-- N/A --> |title=NH gov orders flags lowered for Gale Thomson |url=http://archive.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2010/03/12/nh_gov_orders_flags_lowered_for_gale_thomson/ |agency=Associated Press |newspaper=Boston Globe |date=2010-03-12 |access-date=2010-03-21}}</ref> Her funeral was held at the Baker River Bible Church in Wentworth, New Hampshire, on March 13, 2010.<ref name=bg/>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.mtcubefarm.com/ Mt. Cube Sugar Farm]
{{S-start}} {{s-hon}} {{Succession box|title=First Lady of New Hampshire |before=Dorothy Peterson |after=Irene Gallen|years=1973–1979}} {{S-end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomson, Gale}} Category:1919 births Category:2010 deaths Category:First ladies and gentlemen of New Hampshire Category:Businesspeople from New Hampshire Category:Farmers from New Hampshire Category:Women in New Hampshire politics Category:New Hampshire Republicans Category:Trustees of museums Category:People from Brooklyn Category:People from Orford, New Hampshire Category:People from Stony Brook, New York Category:20th-century American businesspeople Category:20th-century American women Category:21st-century American women