Siti Hartinah

Siti Hartinah was the wife of the second Indonesian president, Suharto, and the First Lady of Indonesia from 1967 to 1996. She was born on 23 August 1923 in Surakarta, Central Java. She came from a noble family of the Mangkunegaran court and received a Dutch education. She married Suharto on 26 December 1947 in a traditional Javanese ceremony. She supported her husband's military and political career and became his close confidant and advisor. She was widely acknowledged to have been politically powerful and influential. She was also involved in various social and humanitarian activities, such as founding the Dharmais Foundation for cancer patients, the Supersemar Foundation for education scholarships, and the PKK, a women's organization that promoted family welfare and development. She was known as Ibu Tien or Madame Tien in Indonesia, and was respected by many people for her modesty and generosity. She died of heart failure on 28 April 1996 in Jakarta, at the age of 72. She was buried beside her husband in the Astana Giribangun mausoleum complex in Karanganyar Regency, Central Java. She was honored as a national hero of Indonesia in 2007.