By EMILY LANGER | The Washington Post | Published: April 16, 2021
As the wife of a U.S. diplomat, Penelope Laingen had trekked to Pakistan, Afghanistan and Malta, loyally serving alongside her husband in the long tradition of Foreign Service families.
"From boiling vats of water to dropping calling cards," she once remarked, "from packing and unpacking our households to attending endless receptions, from parasites and culture shock to performing charitable acts," the duties thrust upon Laingen had accustomed her to a life of hardship — but also, she said, one of "purpose and meaning."
Her most public ordeal began on Nov. 4, 1979, when Iranian militants stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, where her husband, L. Bruce Laingen, was chargé d'affaires. Laingen — one of three hostages detained, separately from their embassy colleagues, at the Iranian Foreign Ministry — was the highest-ranking official among the 52 Americans held in captivity for 444 days.