Former first lady of Republic of Vietnam (1924-2011)

By U.S. News Agency / Asian

Mrs. Ngo Dinh Nhu, née Tran Le Xuan, former first lady Republic of Vietnam, died 2 am Sunday, the same day Easter 2011, at a hospital in Rome, Italy, according to a source close to her.

Truong Phu Thu lawyers, the only people who interviewed her from the time after the war, communicating with her regular need to carry out her memoir, announced this news via email on Sunday.

Mrs. Ngo Dinh Nhu uttered, “the last breath of serenity and peace to all the children and grandchildren gathered by his bedside,” according to Zhang’s lawyer Phu Thu. “She has received the last sacraments with full grace of the Risen Lord.”

Mrs. Nhu, born in 1924, is the widow of Mr. Ngo Dinh Nhu, brother and mentor of President Ngo Dinh Diem. Because President Diem had no family, she is to be considered as first lady of the Republic of Vietnam.

Born into an aristocratic intellectual family, she hailed from Sarraut Albert School in Hanoi. Her mother is the granddaughter of King Dong Khanh, her lawyer father, Tran Van Chuong, later ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam in the United States.

In 1943, she married Mr. Ngo Dinh Nhu, and switched to Catholicism. Her Christian name is Maria.

During the First Republic, she led the Women’s Solidarity. However, many of her statements in the press and some of her other actions allegedly contributed to growing discontent, leading to a coup Nov. 1, 1963.

By the time the coup occurred, Mrs. Ngo Dinh Nhu and Le Thuy female leader traveled to the United States to lobby the American public to support the Republic of Vietnam. After the coup, she has not been back to Vietnam.

She has four children, two boys two girls, including female leader Ngo Dinh Le Thuy, died in 1968 in a traffic accident in Paris.