Posted on 02/21/2004 10:38:05 PM PST by HAL9000
HONG KONG (AP) -- The first wife of Macau gambling tycoon Stanley Ho, dubbed "the No. 1 beauty in Macau," has died, newspapers reported Sunday. She was 80.Clementina Angela Leitao Ho died at home Saturday after suffering from a long illness, newspapers quoted a statement from Ho's office as saying.
Calls to his company went unanswered Sunday.
Born into a wealthy Portuguese family in Macau, the young Leitao, whose father was one of the most prominent lawyers in the small gambling enclave, was famed for her beauty.
Leitao and Ho were married in 1942, long before his monopoly on Macau's casinos turned him into a billionaire, the Chinese-language Oriental Daily News reported.
They have three daughters and a son, who was killed in a car crash in Portugal more than 20 years ago.
Ho later married three other wives.
Macau - 65 kilometers (40 miles) west of Hong Kong - was governed by the Portuguese for more than four centuries before it was returned to China in 1999.
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