Danielle Mitterrand | French leader's wife, 87

Danielle Mitterrand, 87, a decorated member of the French Resistance and a combative advocate for the poor who broke the mold as first lady alongside France's first Socialist president, died Tuesday in Paris.

She was hospitalized in recent days for fatigue, her France Libertés foundation said.

An avowed leftist, Ms. Mitterrand turned the 14-year tenure of her husband, Francois, into her own bully pulpit - one that long outlasted him.

He died of cancer less than a year after leaving office in 1995. In a poignant moment in modern French politics, the widow stood before his coffin alongside his mistress and his daughter with her, whose out-of-wedlock birth and existence were long kept secret from the public.

Ms. Mitterrand advocated many causes, supporting Marxist rebels in El Salvador and ethnic minorities such as Kurds and Tibetans, and opposing capitalist excesses.

She created several charities and crisscrossed the world in defense of human rights. She once kissed Fidel Castro on the steps of a residence for visiting dignitaries near the presidential Elysee Palace.

Though she had a gentle demeanor and voice, Ms. Mitterrand urged worldwide unity among "new Resisters" to "put an end to economic and financial dictatorship, the henchman of political dictators. Finally, they seem to be shaken by the anger of peoples."

President Nicolas Sarkozy's office said: "Neither the setback or the victory caused her to deviate from the road she had laid for herself: giving a hearing to the voice of those that no one wanted to hear."

Thirteen years ago, Ms. Mitterrand visited in prison Mumia Abu-Jamal, who has spent nearly 30 years on death row over his 1982 conviction for the murder of a Philadelphia police officer.

She was no novice at defending her convictions. As a young woman, she was awarded the Croix de Guerre for her work in the Resistance during the Nazi occupation in World War II.

Danielle Emilienne Isabelle Gouze was born in Verdun, a town in northeastern France known as one of World War I's biggest killing fields.

In 1944, she went underground with the Resistance. That year, she met and wed Francois Mitterrand, who had joined under the code name "Francois Morland." They had three sons, one of whom, Pascal, died at a young age. - AP