Sonia Peres, wife of Israeli president, dead at 87

From Guy Azriel, CNN

January 20, 2011 -- Updated 1255 GMT (2055 HKT)

Sonia Peres married Shimon Peres, current President and twice the former Prime Minister of Israel, in 1945.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Sonia Peres preferred to remain out of the public eye
• The couple has lived separately since Shimon Peres was elected president

RELATED TOPICS

• Shimon Peres
• Israel

Jerusalem (CNN) -- Sonia Peres, the wife of Israeli President Shimon Peres, died at her Tel Aviv home Thursday morning, a president's spokeswoman said. She was 87.

The president was making his way to Tel Aviv from Jerusalem on Thursday, said spokeswoman Meital Jaslovitz.

The couple has lived separately since Shimon Peres was elected president in 2007, with his wife -- who preferred to remain out of the public eye -- remaining in their Tel Aviv home while her husband moved to the official residence in Jerusalem.

Dr. Rafi Valdan, Peres' son-in-law, told Israel Radio that she was found dead Thursday morning when a grandchild came to visit her, according to the daily newspaper Haaretz.

Sonia Peres was "all nobility and devotion," Valdan said. "The family members were very close to her. We would see her almost every day."

She was born in 1923 in the Ukraine and met Shimon Peres after they both came to Israel, Haaretz said. They married in May 1945 and had three children.