Margaret Chant-Papandreou buried in Athens at 103
by Bill Giannopoulos · Greek City TimesStay connected to Greek City Times for Free on Google News
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The funeral of Margaret Chant-Papandreou, the American-born wife, daughter-in-law and mother of Greek prime ministers, was held in Athens on Sunday, 20 September.
She died on Friday in southern Athens, aged 103. She is widely credited with helping to strengthen the legal and social rights of Greek women.
Her son, former prime minister George Papandreou, said she “was not born Greek but became a Greek.”
“She deeply loved Greece; she fought, served and strove for Greece,” he said. “Above all she formed a link with Greek women, and they in turn adopted her, embraced her, stood beside her in common struggles for dignity, equality and peace.”
Margaret Esther Chant was born in Oak Park, Illinois, on 30 September 1923. She studied journalism and later took a master’s in public health at the University of Minnesota, where she met Andreas Papandreou. He was the son of post-war prime minister George Papandreou and later founded PASOK, the party their son George would also lead.
They married in 1951 and later moved to Greece. The marriage ended in divorce in 1989 after Andreas Papandreou’s relationship with Olympic Airways flight attendant Dimitra Liani became public. He later married Liani.
Chant-Papandreou served as president of the Women’s Union of Greece. She helped shape laws that changed women’s status in the country, including the end of the dowry system, civil marriage in 1982, divorce by mutual consent, the right of women to keep their surnames after marriage, and equal rights in child custody.
She published several books, including her 2014 memoir Love & Power: A Midwestern First Lady.
The service at the First Cemetery was attended by family, mostly PASOK politicians, and supporters, some of whom held up her portrait.
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