Thea Muldoon
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Dame Thea Muldoon DBE QSO |
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Thea Muldoon in 1977
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| Spouse of the Prime Minister of New Zealand | |
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In office 12 December 1975 – 26 July 1984 |
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| Preceded by | Glen Elna Rowling |
| Succeeded by | Naomi Joy Lange |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Thea Dale Flyger 13 March 1927 Huntly, New Zealand |
| Died | 24 February 2015 (aged 87) Auckland, New Zealand |
| Spouse(s) | Robert Muldoon (m. 1951; d. 1992) |
| Children | Three |
| Known for | Community service, wife of prime minister |
| Religion | Anglican |
Dame Thea Dale Muldoon DBE QSO (née Flyger, 13 March 1927 – 24 February 2015) was the wife of Robert Muldoon, who was the Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1975 to 1984. She was also known for her community service.
Born at Pukemiro near Huntly in 1927, Thea Dale Flyger was the second child of Annie Eveleen (née Rainbow) and Stanley Arthur Flyger, an engineer, surveyor and builder. She was educated at Belmont Primary School and Takapuna Grammar School on Auckland's North Shore. Raised as an Anglican, she had a strict upbringing and taught Sunday School at St Michael's Church in Bayswater.
After leaving school, she worked at a public accounting firm and took night classes in accountancy at Seddon Memorial Technical College. She later worked at Holeproof Ltd in the costing office.
Muldoon attended both National and Labour Party meetings with her father, and joined the Junior National Party mostly for social reasons. She met her future husband, Robert Muldoon, at a seminar on voluntary unionism in 1947 and they began going out together the following March. From 1947 she served as the North Shore representative on the Divisional Junior Education and Political Committee. The couple were married at Holy Trinity Church, Devonport on 17 March 1951, and had three children between December of that year and 1956.
During her husband's term as Prime Minister from 1975 to 1984, Muldoon took an active role in civic affairs, regularly speaking at functions, opening buildings and visiting with the sick and infirm. She was the first wife of a New Zealand prime minister to have a full-time secretary. Robert Muldoon died in 1992, aged 70.
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