Dame Thea Muldoon has died
Thanks to her highly visible public role, Lady Muldoon was the first NZ prime minister's wife to qualify for her own full-time secretary.
Dame Thea 'Tam' Muldoon died yesterday in Auckland aged 87.
The widow of former prime minister Sir Robert Muldoon was born Thea Dale Flyger and raised in Huntly.
After studying accounting, she met Robert Muldoon in 1948 through the North Shore chapter of the Junior Nationals.
They married in 1951 and went on to have three children together.
Dame Thea was highly visible as the prime minister’s wife from 1975-1984, regularly speaking at functions and performing such official duties as opening buildings.
Her public role qualified Dame Thea for her own fulltime secretary – a first for the wife of a New Zealand prime minister.
She was awarded the Queen's Service Order in the 1986 New Year Honours and appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1993 New Year Honours, the year after Sir Robert’s death.
Dame Thea is survived by two of her three children – eldest child Barbara Williams died as a result of motor neurone disease – as well as four grandchildren, and four step-grandchildren.
A service to celebrate her life will be held at Auckland’s All Saint's Chapel in Meadowbank on Tuesday March 3 at 1.30pm.
In lieu of flowers, her family have requested donations to St Andrews Village Trust.
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Dame Thea Muldoon has died
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