Germaine Coty

Germaine Alice Coty (; née Corblet; 9 April 188712 November 1955) was the daughter of a Normandy ship owner who became the wife of the French lawyer-politician René Coty. When she died, slightly less than 22 months after her husband became president of France, she became the first wife of a French president to die while her husband was still in office. By that time she had become popular with the French public "for her simplicity and kindness: hostile commentators who had mocked her when she moved into the presidential "Élysée Palace" quickly ceased their mockery in response to vehement public protests". ("Germaine Coty séduit immédiatement les Français par sa simplicité et sa gentillesse..) Les chansonniers qui la raillent font vite taire leurs moqueries en raison des protestations véhémentes du public". Much of Germaine's education was provided by church institutions, first in France and later in England: she would remain a practicing Catholic throughout her life. Because of the time she spent at a convent school across the sea to the north, in Southampton, she also became fluent in the English language.

Marriage and family By the time she met the young lawyer-notary René Coty early in 1905 for she already knew both Nelly and Marthe, his two elder sisters. Later that year her new husband launched himself on a political career, elected as a local councillor, and identifying himself on the ballot paper as a "radical and radical-socialist" candidate. It is not clear why the election was subsequently formally invalidated, but the next year he stood for election again and was re-elected: René Coty continued to be listed as a local councillor between 1908 and 1919. The daughters married in 1929 and 1932, and Germaine Coty very soon became a multiple hands-on grandmother, a role which she greatly relished for the rest of her life. The younger of the two daughters, Anne-Marie (1909–1987), married the otorhinolaryngologist turned politician Maurice Georges, who in 1974 was among those who signed the so-called "Call of the 43 [politicians]", urging Valéry Giscard d'Estaing to stand for the presidency in that year's presidential election (though he subsequently left the "group of 43" following a disagreement).

Middle years The Cotys were separated during the First World War after René Coty volunteered for military service. He served with the 129th Infantry Regiment (which had its home base at Le Havre); and fought at Verdun. The letters that the couple exchanged during this period indicate that their partnership was a close one and that Germaine Coty handled the separation and associated worry with her customary quiet strength. A plaque on an outside wall identifies the Paris apartment building in which René and Germaine Coty lived between October 1936 and January 1954. After the war René Coty resumed his legal work. He had been a member of the bar at Le Havre, specialising in maritime and commercial law. The quality of his advocacy and court-room oratory meant he was on occasion called upon to appear in other cases, both civil and criminal. However, his political work became increasingly time-consuming, and in 1932 he was obliged to terminate his court room work. René Coty's emergence as the winner of the last men standing came as a surprise to colleagues and commentators alike. Germaine Coty was informed of it by a news reporter who had found his way to the front door of her apartment in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, which René and Germaine Coty had shared since relocating from Normandy in 1936. The reporter rang the bell, hoping for a reaction from the wife of the new president. He was not disappointed. Germaine Coty had been in the kitchen and had not bothered to remove her apron before opening the door to the unexpected visitor. Her reaction was direct: "I'll make him a tart". ("Je vais lui faire une tarte." Although some commentators have inferred an element of contrivance in the public face presented by Germaine Coty, most sources accept that she was totally genuine, without either the inclination or the ability to create any sort of "alternative version of herself for public consumption".)

Germaine Coty quickly became very popular with the wider public, however, and the public criticism targeting her perceived vulnerabilities ceased because of the protests it generated. The French appreciated and empathised with her powerful maternal drive. It became known that she had several rooms in the presidential "Élysée Palace" in order to make it possible to accommodate all ten of her grandchildren. Sources also reference instances of her "child-like simplicity". A particularly frequently repeated anecdote concerns the time she acted as an incognito guide for two American students visiting the Château de Rambouillet. On another occasion her actions were widely reported when she distributed pastries to children in the streets of Vizille, near to what was at that time still an official presidential residence (and one of which President Coty was particularly fond). It became known that Germaine Coty always took particular care to befriend and look after palace staff at "the Élysée". She was also seen to be generous with her time, scheduling five hours each day for her work on different social and welfare projects. It was also noticed that with Germaine Coty running the house, letters addressed to "la dame de l’Élysée" (approximately, "the lady of the palace"), received serious attention and proper replies. and by a campaign in her defence led by Le Pèlerin, the mass-circulation weekly magazine of the Catholic Church in France, even if the perspective offered by the traditionalist catholic magazine is underpinned by attitudes that might invite incredulity or ridicule two generations later: "We [the French] are a people who recommend that wives should stay home, care for their husbands, their children: and yet when [one of these wives] is called by the dice of democracy to the top job [of wife of the president], the press mocks her because she does not look like a fashion model, because her priorities are family-related".

Death Germaine Coty suffered a fatal heart attack and died almost at once, shortly before dawn on 12 November 1955. She had been acutely fatigued for two days, and the previous day, during an Armistice Day celebration at the Arc de Triomphe, she had unexpectedly sat down for twenty minutes.

The unexpected death of Germaine Coty was followed by a widespread outburst of public emotion. Writing in "Le Prestige français" in January 1956, Claude Salvy reported that "Madame René Coty received the funerary respect [normally reserved for] a monarch". ("Madame René Coty eut des obsèques de souveraine".) Sensitive to the public mood, which the crowds gathering outside the "Élysée Palace" made impossible to ignore, President Coty agreed to the government's request that a condolence register should be made available, and that an official ceremony should be organised at the Église de la Madeleine in central Paris. Slightly under 22,000 people attended.

Celebration Numerous elementary schools and pre-schools across France, but especially in Normandy, have been renamed to celebrate the memory of Germaine Coty, along with a number of other public buildings, retirement homes, streets and town squares.