The widow of Yuri Gagarin died: how the wife and children of the astronaut lived after his death
'18.03.2020'
Source: Woman.ru
Valentina Gagarina was never able to recover from a stroke. The heart of the widow of the first astronaut stopped on March 17, writes Woman.ru.
The media learned that Valentina Gagarina passed away. The widow of Yuri Gagarin was 84 years old.
“We confirm that Valentina Ivanovna Gagarina died, there is no more information yet,” the press service of the Cosmonaut Training Center said.
More than a month ago, Gagarina suffered a stroke and fell into a coma. Relatives and friends of the family all this time visited her in the hospital, but, unfortunately, Valentina Ivanovna never regained consciousness. On the evening of March 17, her heart stopped.
On the subject: The first woman in the world to go into outer space: the story of Svetlana Savitskaya
Gagarina, nee Goryacheva, was born on December 15, 1935. In 2019, she celebrated her 84th birthday.
The Gagarin's wedding took place on October 27, 1957 in Orenburg. Yuri Gagarin was then a military pilot, and Valentina graduated from the Orenburg Medical School.
In the marriage, the couple had two daughters. The eldest, Elena, works as the director of the Moscow Kremlin Museum. The youngest, Galina, became a doctor of economic sciences, professor, head of the department of national and regional economics of the Russian Economic University. G.V. Plekhanova.
After the flight of Yuri Gagarin into space on April 12, 1961, Gagarin was awarded the Order of Lenin as the wife of the first cosmonaut of the Earth. Since 1960, she worked as a nurse, and then as a laboratory biochemist at the Mission Control Center in Star City.
According to "RBK", after the death of her husband on March 27, 1968, Valentin Gagarin contributed to the creation of a unique Museum named after Yuri Gagarin. As Radio 1 reported, in 1976 she donated her dress jacket, all the awards and personal documents of her husband, as well as gifts, special issues of the newspapers Pravda, Izvestia, Red Star, and Soviet Culture , “Literary newspaper”, “Moskovsky Komsomolets” from April 12–13, 1961.
In 1981, Valentina Gagarina wrote a book in memory of Yuri Gagarin - “108 minutes and a lifetime”.
After retirement, she lived in Star City, in the Shchelkovo district of Moscow Region. In September 2017, Gagarina was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of the Moscow Region.
