Truus Smulders-Beliën

Geertruida Catharina Theresia Maria "Truus" Smulders-Beliën ( Beliën; 20 November 1902 – 11 June 1966) was a Dutch politician and teacher who was the mayor of Oost-, West- en Middelbeers in North Brabant from 1946 to 1966. The first female mayor in the Netherlands, she succeeded her husband after he was executed by Nazi soldiers.

Biography Geertruida Catharina Theresia Maria Beliën was born on 20 November 1902 in Oirschot, Netherlands, the eldest of nine children of Johannes Josephus Beliën and Geertruida Wilhelmina van Rhijn. After studying with the Franciscan Sisters of Oirschot, she became a teacher in Oirschot and Eindhoven schools in 1924.

Jan was arrested by Nazi forces in July 1944 for refusing to provide the names of potential conscripts. He was sent to the Herzogenbusch concentration camp with other mayors, leaving Truus and their four children in Middelbeers. He was executed in April 1945. After she learned of Jan's death, Truus applied for the position of mayor, writing letters of interest to Minister of the Interior Louis Beel, Queen's Commissioner , and Queen Wilhelmina. With the support of Beel, who had previously written to her to express his condolences, Smulders-Beliën became mayor on 16 April 1946. She was re-appointed as mayor in 1952, 1958, and 1964, and was a Catholic People's Party member of the Provincial Council of North Brabant beginning in 1950.

In 1966, Smulders-Beliën was admitted to the hospital in 's-Hertogenbosch due to surgical complications from a cervical cancer operation. She died on 11 June 1966, at the age of 63. Her funeral was held on 15 June 1966 at in Middelbeers. A statue of Smulders-Beliën, commissioned in part by the municipality of Oirschot, was erected in 2002, the 100th anniversary of her birth.