Michael A. Hess

{{Infobox person

| name = Michael Anthony Hess

| image = Michael_A._Hess,_official_portrait_1988.jpg

| alt =

| caption = official portrait, 1988

| birth_name = Anthony Lee

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1952|7|5}}

| birth_place = Roscrea, County Tipperary, Ireland

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1995|8|15|1952|7|5}}

| death_place = Washington, D.C., U.S.

| nationality = Irish (native)
American (adopted)

| party = Republican

| other_names =

| occupation =

| known_for =

| resting_place = Sean Ross Abbey
Roscrea, County Tipperary, Ireland

}}

Michael Anthony Hess (born Anthony Lee; July 5, 1952 – August 15, 1995) was an Irish-born American lawyer, deputy chief legal counsel and later chief legal counsel to the Republican National Committee (RNC) in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

He was born Anthony Lee to Philomena Lee in Ireland, and spent his first years of life in a convent before being adopted by Marge and Doc Hess of St. Louis, Missouri, US. The issues surrounding his adoption are controversial, as part of a program of forced adoptions practised by some Catholic religious orders in Ireland at the time, and the story of that early part of his life was later told in British journalist Martin Sixsmith's book The Lost Child of Philomena Lee and in the film Philomena.{{cite book| title=The Lost Child of Philomena Lee: A Mother, Her Son and a Fifty Year Search| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b6XlX6WM-OMC| first=Martin| last=Sixsmith| publisher=Macmillan| date=August 11, 2011| isbn=978-0-230-74427-1| access-date=August 9, 2014|url-access=subscription }}

Personal life

Hess's birth mother Philomena Lee became pregnant at age 18 at a local carnival by a man named John who worked for the post office. She was disowned by her father and sent to Sean Ross Abbey, a mother and baby home for unwed mothers, which was operated by the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Roscrea, County Tipperary, Ireland.

After she gave birth to Hess, she was able to be with her child until she was 22 and he was three while living in the abbey. As was common practice in Ireland at the time, the nuns sold him to the American couple, Ardo Michael "Doc" Hess and Marjorie "Marge" Lane. Lee did not know where her son was sent by the nuns after she left the Abbey after being pressured into signing the adoption papers.{{cite news| title=The real Philomena Lee finds Hollywood ending to adoption story| url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-real-philomena-lee-finds-hollywood-ending-to-adoption-story/2014/02/04/a907b510-8db7-11e3-95dd-36ff657a4dae_story.html| last=Midgette| first=Anne| newspaper=The Washington Post| access-date=August 9, 2014}}

Hess grew up in the American Midwest and was raised in a Catholic family.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/12/fashion/Philomena-True-Story-Michael-Hess.html?_r=0 |title=Searching for Philomena's Real Son |date=January 10, 2014 |access-date=August 9, 2014 |last=Bernstein| first=Jacob |work=The New York Times}} He graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1974 and earned a J.D. degree at George Washington University.{{cite news |first=Margaret |last=Fosmoe |title=Lost boy in 'Philomena' was 1974 ND graduate |url=http://www.southbendtribune.com/news/community/lost-boy-in-philomena-was-nd-graduate/article_6eb65134-7dd4-11e3-bb95-001a4bcf6878.html |work=South Bend Tribune |date=January 15, 2014 |access-date=January 15, 2014}}

Hess made three visits to Ireland to try to find his mother but was unsuccessful in persuading the nuns to divulge any information. He requested that his ashes be buried at Roscrea in the hope that his mother would be able to find his grave, which she eventually did.{{cite news |first=Martin |last=Sixsmith |title=The Catholic church sold my child|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/sep/19/catholic-church-sold-child |date=September 19, 2009 |work=The Guardian|accessdate=September 6, 2014}} Hess never learned who his mother was.{{cite news| title=The Catholic church sold my child| url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/sep/19/catholic-church-sold-child| last=Sixsmith| first=Martin| date=September 18, 2009| work=The Guardian| access-date=September 8, 2014}}

He died from complications of AIDS, although this was not mentioned at the memorial service held for him.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}} Hess' partner for the last 15 years of his life was Steve Dahllof. Dahllof credited the book The Lost Child of Philomena Lee with "about a three out of 10, in terms of accuracy", while the movie Philomena, "in accuracy of spirit, is 10 out of 10."{{cite web | url=http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/philomena-lee-movie-michael-anthony-hess-gay-republican-lawyer-rnc-republican-national-committee-102345.html | title=Philomena and the back story of a D.C. insider | publisher=Politico | date=January 20, 2014 | access-date=January 31, 2015 | author=Todd S. Purdum | author-link=Todd S. Purdum }}

Career

Hess became deputy chief legal counsel to the Republican National Committee, eventually rising to chief legal counsel. He was an important figure in the redistricting battles of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and was admired for his integrity and pursuit of justice on the critical issue of gerrymandering.{{cite book| title=Race and Redistricting in the 1990s| editor-first=Bernard| editor-last=Grofman| publisher=Algora Publishing| date=January 1, 2003| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iTdFWR4Y-y8C| isbn=978-0-875-86265-1| access-date=August 9, 2014|url-access=subscription }}

Controversy

The programme of forced adoptions by some ecclesiastical authorities in Ireland and elsewhere during the 1950s has raised considerable debate, and the Michael Hess case has further highlighted this.{{cite news| url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23064112 |title=Magdalene laundries support scheme unveiled |website=BBC News |date=June 26, 2013 |access-date=February 14, 2014}} Much of the paperwork relating to this programme was later destroyed and access to adoption archives has been cut off.{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/30/world/europe/a-forced-adoption-a-lifetime-quest-and-a-longing-that-never-waned.html?_r=0| title=A Forced Adoption, a Lifetime Quest and a Longing That Never Waned| first1=Suzanne| last1=Daley| first2=Douglas| last2=Dalby| work=The New York Times| date=November 29, 2013| access-date=January 25, 2013}}

Film

A film portraying Hess' adoption and his mother's later search for him was released in 2013. Philomena, directed by Stephen Frears and based on the book The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, starred Judi Dench as his mother, Sean Mahon as Hess, and Steve Coogan as Martin Sixsmith, the journalist who helped Philomena Lee identify her son.

References

External links

[http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=hess&GSfn=michael&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GScntry=35&GSob=n&GRid=120712654&df=all& Michael A. Hess Memorial on Find A Grave]

Category:1952 births

Category:1995 deaths

Category:20th-century American LGBTQ people

Category:20th-century American lawyers

Category:20th-century Irish LGBTQ people

Category:AIDS-related deaths in Washington, D.C.

Category:American LGBTQ lawyers

Category:American adoptees

Category:American gay politicians

Category:George Washington University Law School alumni

Category:Irish emigrants to the United States

Category:Irish gay politicians