Israeli president's wife Sonya Peres dies at 88

[January 20, 2011]  JERUSALEM (AP) -- Sonya Peres, the fiercely private, estranged wife of Israeli President Shimon Peres, has died in Tel Aviv.

The president's office says Mrs. Peres was 88. She died Thursday.

She was born Sonya Gelman in Ukraine and emigrated to Israel as a child.

She met Peres in high school and they married in 1945.

Throughout his decades-long career, she chose to stay out of the public eye. When Peres became president in 2007 and moved to Jerusalem, she remained in their apartment in Tel Aviv.

The couple had three children, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

[Associated Press]

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