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French president's widow Danielle Mitterrand dead | French president's widow Danielle Mitterrand dead |
(about 1 hour later) | |
Danielle Mitterrand, the widow of former French President Francois Mitterrand, has died at the age of 87. | |
Mrs Mitterrand died in Georges-Pompidou hospital in Paris after being taken ill on Friday, the French news agency AFP reports. | |
She died at 02:00 (01:00 GMT) on Tuesday, days after being placed in an artificial coma. | |
Francois Mitterrand led the Socialist party and served two terms as president of France, from 1981 to 1995. | Francois Mitterrand led the Socialist party and served two terms as president of France, from 1981 to 1995. |
Resistance heroine and humanitarian, Danielle Mitterrand was never content with the ornamental role of a traditional French first lady, according to AFP | |
Whether it was backing the Kurds or Tibetans or Cuban leader Fidel Castro, pleading for an equitable share-out of water resources or denouncing slavery, the causes that she defended ardently were numerous, the agency reported. | |
Born Danielle Gouze in the eastern town of Verdun, she joined the Resistance as a nurse aged only 17, when German troops occupied most of France in 1940. | |
On 27 October, 1944, she married Francois Mitterrand, a fellow Resistance member, whom she met when he was on the run from the Gestapo. | |
The couple had two sons, Gilbert and Jean-Christophe. | |
After President Mitterrand's election in 1981, AFP said she preferred to shun the glittering receptions at the Elysee Palace, and devote herself to human rights work. | |
Francois Mitterrand died of cancer in 1996, but his widow continued her political and human rights work. The organisation she founded in 1986, France-Libertes, celebrated its 25th anniversary in October this year. |