공덕귀 孔德貴

Educator, theologian and women's-rights activist; wife of fourth President Yun Bo-seon; human-rights campaigner for detainees' families

Life & career

Gong Deok-gwi (孔德貴, 1911-1997) was an educator, theologian and women's activist born in Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang. Her seat was Gokbu and she was the second daughter among seven children of Gong Do-bin and Bang Mal-seon. Wikipedia calls her a 79th-generation descendant of Confucius and traces the line to Gong So, who settled in Goryeo with Princess Noguk. Her father died early and her mother raised the seven children by sewing, from whom she said she learned faith and independence.

After graduating from Ilsin Girls' School in Dongnae she studied at the Yokohama Public Women's Theological School and in 1940 returned to serve as an evangelist at Hwanggeum-dong Church in Gimcheon. She refused to adopt a Japanese name and to attend Shinto shrine worship, was placed under watch by the Government-General and is said to have been taken in by the Daegu military police. This follows Wikipedia; no official decoration is confirmed, so she is not classed as an independence-merit holder. After liberation she taught at the Joseon Theological Seminary's women's department, married Seoul mayor Yun Bo-seon in January 1949, and became First Lady in 1960 when he took office as fourth President.

In the 1970s she chaired the Association of Families of Detainees and of Prisoners of Conscience, led campaigns for the release of those held in the People's Revolutionary Party and Minchung Hakryeon cases, and served as president of the Korean Church Women United and chair of the KSCF. She continued campaigns against sex tourism, publishing a 1983 survey report, became first president of a church-unity women's council in 1986, and published her autobiography in 1994. She died at her Anguk-dong home in November 1997 and was buried in a family cemetery in Asan, South Chungcheong.

Childhood in Tongyeong

Born in Myeongjeong-dong, Tongyeong in 1911, she grew up under her widowed mother and graduated from Ilsin Girls' School in Dongnae.

Faith and Resistance in Late Colonial Rule

After studying theology in Japan she worked as an evangelist and was watched for refusing Japanese names and shrine worship.

First Lady and Rights Activism

Married to Yun Bo-seon in 1949 and First Lady in 1960, she led detainees'-families and anti-sex-tourism campaigns in the 1970s.

Later Years and Legacy

She published her autobiography in 1994 and died in 1997. With clan members Gong Jin-hang and Gong Ro-myung she is a leading modern figure of the Gokbu Gong.

Grave

She is said to be buried in the family cemetery on Biryongsan, Dongcheon-ri, Eumbong-myeon, Asan, South Chungcheong.

Descendants

With President Yun Bo-seon she had two sons, Yun Sang-gu and Yun Dong-gu.

Other 곡부 공씨 figures