Madeleine Albright shaped a generation of foreign policy leaders

Madeleine K. Albright, who passed away on Wednesday, shaped a generation of foreign policy leaders — gently and usually with a smile. She knew every senior official, mentored many of them, and managed to say a cheery word even to people who took “dour” as a compliment.

Even into her 80s, Albright had the style of a college undergraduate, gossiping late into the night with her countless friends in the United States and abroad. At the opening dinner of each summer’s gathering of the Aspen Strategy Group, she would don a cowgirl dress and join other former luminaries in singing show tunes and, always, “America the Beautiful.”