Kwa Geok Choo | Singapore notable, 89

Kwa Geok Choo, 89, the wife of Singapore's founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, who described her as his "tower of strength," and mother of the city-state's current prime minister, died Saturday.

Ms. Kwa suffered a stroke and brain hemorrhage in 2008 and had been bedridden and unable to speak since then.

She is survived by her husband, two sons - Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Lee Hsien Yang - and a daughter, neurologist Lee Wei Ling.

Lee Kuan Yew, who is 87, stepped down as prime minister in 1990 but continues to wield influence in his son's cabinet under the title of minister mentor. He is also in frail health and was hospitalized Wednesday with a chest infection.

Although sometimes criticized as too authoritarian, Lee is credited with transforming Singapore from a sleepy port city into a gleaming regional center for commerce and a model of social order and low corruption.

Born to a well-to-do family, Ms. Kwa attended Methodist Girls' School and Raffles Institute in Singapore and England's Cambridge University, where she studied law as a Queen's Scholar. Ms. Kwa met fellow Cambridge student Lee in 1944, and the two married in Singapore in 1950.

"I had 61 years of happiness," Lee said in an interview with the New York Times published last month, adding that he had been distraught at times over his wife's illness.

Ms. Kwa was a partner in the Lee & Lee law firm, which she founded with her husband and Lee's brother Lee Kim Yew in 1955. After Lee became prime minister in 1959, Ms. Kwa stayed on to help run the firm.

She was not known as a campaigner and remained a deeply private person. Most Singaporeans remember her for wearing traditional Chinese cheongsam dresses while accompanying her husband on official trips abroad. - AP