Imelda R. Marcos (born Imelda Remedios Visitacion Trinidad Romuáldez on July 2, 1929) is the widow of former President Ferdinand Marcos, and is herself an influential political figure in the Philippines. She is sometimes referred to as the Steel Butterfly or the Iron Butterfly.
Imelda was born on July 2, 1929 in San Juan de Dios Hospital in Manila. Her parents were Vicente Orestes Lopez Romuáldez (of Spanish-Chinese-Filipino blood) and Remedios Trinidad (1902–1938) , the second wife of the widowed Vicente. She is of Visayan and Tagalog descent. Her paternal ancestors, the wealthy and prominent Lopezes of Leyte, claimed to have founded the town of Tolosa, Leyte . Her own branch of the family was not political. Her father was a scholarly man more interested in music and culture than in public life. Her mother, Remedios Trinidad, a dressmaker who grew up in an orphanage in Manila, said to have been an illegitimate offspring of a friar, was from the town of Baliuag, Bulacan.
Marcos spent her childhood in the shadow of the Malacañang Palace in San Miguel District in Manila, since her family then lived near San Miguel Church. After Marcos's mother Remedios died, and their home foreclosed, her father, Vicente, moved his family back to Leyte to live with relatives, where Marcos earned a bachelor's degree in education at St. Paul's College.
She became a beauty queen. At the age of 18, she was crowned the "Rose of Tacloban," became "Miss Leyte", went to Manila in 1953. Her photogenic face soon graced many of Manila's magazine covers and she was named the "Muse of Manila" by then Manila Mayor, Arsenio Lacson, a special title given her after she protested her loss in the Miss Manila pageant. In 1954, Marcos met then-Ilocos Norte Congressman Ferdinand E. Marcos. After a whirlwind courtship in Baguio during Holy Week, they were married in May of that year at the Manila Pro-Cathedral Church with President Ramon Magsaysay as principal sponsor. They have four children: Maria Imelda "Imee" Marcos, Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr., Irene Marcos, and Aimee Marcos, who was adopted.
In 1966, Ferdinand Marcos became the 10th President of the Philippines. Together with Imelda, he would rule the Philippines from September 21, 1972 up to his removal in February 1986 in the famous People Power Revolution when he fled the Philippines.