Marie-Thérèse Houphouët-Boigny


Marie-Thérèse Houphouët-Boigny was the First Lady of Ivory Coast from 1962 to 1993. Her husband was Félix Houphouët-Boigny, the first President of Côte d'Ivoire.
She was born Marie-Thérèse Brou in 1930 in a suburb of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, French West Africa. She was one of her parents' six children. When Brou was 16 years old, she and nineteen other Ivorian girls were chosen to attend private school in France. While living in France, she met and married her husband, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, when she was 21 years old. Houphouët-Boigny was more than 25 years older than her.
Houphouët-Boigny caught the eye of the media during 1962 visit to the Kennedy White House, and was dubbed "Africa's Jackie" by a starstruck media.
In 1987, First Lady Houphouët-Boigny, she founded the N'Daya International Foundation, dedicated to improving the health, welfare, and education of children in Africa. As the Foundation's president, she led numerous projects in support of children. In 1990, she helped create and produce Kimboo, a cartoon series aired on BET, to offer cartoon heroes to African children.
Marie-Thérèse was the first lady of the Ivory Coast for 33 years, until her husband's death in 1993.
Félix and Marie-Thérèse did not have any biological children, but adopted three children together.