Germaine Coty

Germaine Coty
Coty in 1954
Spouse of the President of France
In office
16 January 1954  12 November 1955
PresidentRené Coty
Preceded byMichelle Auriol
Succeeded byYvonne de Gaulle (1959)
Personal details
Born
Germaine Alice Corblet

(1887-04-09)9 April 1887
Le Havre, Seine-Inférieure, France
Died12 November 1955(1955-11-12) (aged 68)
Château de Rambouillet, Seine-et-Oise, France
Spouse
(m. 1905)
Children2

Germaine Alice Coty (French pronunciation: [ʒɛʁmɛn kɔti]; née Corblet; 9 April 1887  12 November 1955) was the daughter of a Normandy ship owner who became the wife of the French lawyer-politician René Coty. When she died, slightly less than 22 months after her husband became president of France, she became the first wife of a French president to die while her husband was still in office. By that time she had become popular with the French public "for her simplicity and kindness: hostile commentators who had mocked her when she moved into the presidential "Élysée Palace" quickly ceased their mockery in response to vehement public protests".