Đoàn Thị Giàu

Đoàn Thị Giàu was a Vietnamese teacher and revolutionary. As the spouse of Vietnamese president Tôn Đức Thắng, she served as the de facto First Lady of North Vietnam from 1969 until her death in 1974, one year before the country was unified.

Biography

Early life

Giàu was born in 1898 at Vĩnh Kim village, Châu Thành district, Tiền Giang province of then-French Cochinchina. She married Thắng in 1921 but the pair was separated for almost 30 years due to the Indochina Wars. They had three children, which Giàu raised all by herself. Their son died during a famine at the age of 3.
She is believed to have influenced Thắng's decision to join the Indochinese Communist Party, the predecessor of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

Spouse of the President

In 1954, following the Geneva Conference, Giàu relocated to North Vietnam and reunited with her husband. When Tôn Đức Thắng became President of Vietnam in 1969, Giàu was the de facto First Lady of North Vietnam until her death in 1974. She was believed to have maintained an austere lifestyle.