Paris, November 23, 2011 (SPS) - Former French first lady Danielle Mitterand died on Tuesday at the age of 87. AFP news agency quoted unnamed sources close to the widow of Socialist president Francois Mitterand as saying she passed away in the Georges Pompidou European Hospital in Paris during the night.
Mitterand was admitted to hospital on Friday suffering from anemia and extreme fatigue. Doctors put her in an induced coma.
Born Danielle Emilienne Isabelle Gouze in 1924 in Verdun, Mitterand was an atypical first lady, who disliked protocol and was outspoken in her support of left-wing independence movements. At the age of 17, she joined the French Resistance against Nazi occupation of France.
She met Francois Mitterand through the Resistance when he went into hiding from the Gestapo at her parents' home. The couple married in 1944 and had three sons together, one of whom died in childhood.
In latter years Danielle Mitterand devoted herself to her France Freedoms foundation, which she founded to promote human rights, including universal access to water and the right to self-determination of ethnic minorities. (SPS)
Source: SABC
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