Anna Chennault

Anna Chennault, born Chen Xiangmei (Chinese: 陳香梅; born June 23, 1925), also known as Anna Chan Chennault or Anna Chen Chennault, is the widow of World War II leader Lieutenant General Claire Lee Chennault, commander of American air operations in China and leader of the "Flying Tigers". She was a prominent Asian-American politician of the Republican Party.

Early life

Born in Beijing, China, on June 23, 1925, Chen Xiangmei received a bachelor's degree in Chinese from Lingnan University in Hong Kong in 1944. She was a war correspondent for the Central News Agency from 1944 to 1948 and wrote for the Hsin Ming Daily News in Shanghai, from 1944 to 1949.

She is the younger sister of Cynthia Chan, who was a U.S. Army nurse in the group under Claire Chennault in Kunming. While visiting Cynthia Chan in Kunming, she met Claire Chennault.

Marriage

Chen Xiangmei and Chennault, who was more than 30 years her senior, married in 1947. In 1946, Chennault had divorced his first wife, the former Nell Thompson, whom he had wed in 1911 in Winnsboro, Louisiana, and the mother of his eight children, the youngest of whom, Rosemary Chennault Simrall, died in August 2013.