Evelyn Mandela, 82; First Wife of Former South African Leader
Evelyn Mandela, 82, the first wife of former South African President Nelson Mandela and the mother of the couple’s four children, died April 30 in South Africa of respiratory illness.
She was born Evelyn Ntoko Mase in the rural town of Engcobo and was introduced to Mandela by her cousin, African National Congress activist Walter Sisulu, after moving to Johannesburg for nurse’s training.
The couple married in 1944 and she worked while Mandela completed law school. They divorced in 1955 because of what Nelson Mandela termed irreconcilable differences.
She raised their children largely on her own. One child died of meningitis shortly after birth. Another died in a car accident in 1969.
After the divorce, she married a retired businessman, Simon Rakeepile, though she kept the name Mandela.
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