Renée Klang de Guzmán


Renée Klang Avelino was a Dominican philanthropist and First Lady of the Dominican Republic from 1978 to 1982. The wife and widow of the Dominican President Antonio Guzmán, she founded the National Council for Childhood, and earned the mote of "the Eternal First Lady". After the presidency of her late husband, she was devoted to philanthropy and volunteerism in the city of Santiago de los Caballeros.

Biography

Renée Klang was born in La Guaira, Venezuela, to Charles Klang, a French diplomat, and Judith Avelino, a Brazilian woman. When she was a teenager, her family settled in the Dominican Republic. She did her secondary studies on Santiago de los Caballeros and her university studies on Santo Domingo, where she graduated in Dentistry at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo.
Amid her studies in Santo Domingo, she met Silvestre Antonio Guzmán. Klang married Guzmán on 28 October 1939 and dropped out of college. After the fall of the dictatorship of Trujillo, they devoted themselves to politics and joined the Juan Bosch’s Dominican Revolutionary Party.
She bore two children, Iván and Sonia. The latter was minister of Industry and Commerce during Hipólito Mejía’s presidency.
During the presidency of her husband, Klang shared with two popes: John Paul I and John Paul II. The former wrote about Klang in his diary and said that: «The wife of the president of the Dominican Republic is intelligent and vivacious. She is cultured and serious, she knows how to go to the root of problems without any boasting».
After her husband’s suicide, just days before the end of his constitutional term, she moved back to Santiago and dedicated to philanthropy.

Death

She died in Santiago, aged 97, due to complications from a thrombosis in the right leg.