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Jovanka Broz
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Jovanka Broz
Jovanka Broz (née Budisavljević; Serbian Cyrillic: Јованка Броз, née Будисављевић; 7 December 1924 – 20 October 2013) was the First Lady of Yugoslavia from 1952 until 1980 as the wife of Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito. She was a lieutenant colonel in the Yugoslav People's Army.
Born in Lika, she joined the anti-fascist resistance movement in 1941 and served in the Partisan army during World War II, where she was wounded twice and awarded the Order of Bravery. In 1945, she was assigned as Tito’s personal secretary and later became his wife in 1952.
As First Lady, she participated in numerous diplomatic events and hosted foreign leaders. In the 1970s, tensions with Tito’s close aides led to accusations of political interference, resulting in her isolation and eventual separation from Tito in 1977.
After his death in 1980, she lived in near-complete seclusion under unofficial house arrest, without personal documents or a pension. Her living conditions deteriorated, and she regained her documents only in 2009. She died in 2013 in Belgrade and was buried with state honours at the House of Flowers.
Jovanka Budisavljević was born on 7 December 1924, into a Serb family in the village of Pećane near Udbina, in the Lika region, then part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, now Croatia. Her parents were Mihailo "Mićo" Budisavljević and Milica (née Svilar). She had four siblings: older brother Maksim (b. 1923), younger brother Petar (b. 1926), and two younger sisters, Nada (b. 1934) and Zora (b. 1936). She was named after her maternal grandmother, Jovanka Svilar.
Her father emigrated to the United States as a young man, where his uncles lived, before returning in 1920 to the newly formed kingdom. He purchased 20 acres of farmland and married Milica Svilar. The couple had three children before Mićo briefly moved to Canada. Fluent in English and well-travelled, he became known in the village as the "rich American." During World War II, he served as a translator for the American military mission that landed in the Krbava field. After Milica died of tuberculosis in 1937, Mićo remarried and had a daughter, Mara, with his second wife, Soka Svilar.
Jovanka descended from a prominent noble Budisavljević family, of Serbian origin. One of her ancestors, Prota Tomo Budisavljević, was an Orthodox priest and army major who defended the border against Ottoman incursions. His father, Marko Budisavljević, was raised to the rank of nobility in 1787 by Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor. Tomo’s daughter, Sofia, married Nikola Mandić, and their daughter, Georgina, became the mother of the famed inventor Nikola Tesla, making Jovanka and Tesla distantly related.
In April 1941, when World War II started in Yugoslavia, the Budisavljević family was forced to flee the violently anti-Serb Ustaše regime of the Independent State of Croatia, which targeted one third of the prečani Serbs for forced conversion to Catholicism, another third for expulsion and the final third for extermination. The family's house was eventually burned down by the Ustaše troops. She joined the Yugoslav Partisans shortly thereafter, at the age of 17.
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Jovanka Broz
Jovanka Broz (née Budisavljević; Serbian Cyrillic: Јованка Броз, née Будисављевић; 7 December 1924 – 20 October 2013) was the First Lady of Yugoslavia from 1952 until 1980 as the wife of Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito. She was a lieutenant colonel in the Yugoslav People's Army.
Born in Lika, she joined the anti-fascist resistance movement in 1941 and served in the Partisan army during World War II, where she was wounded twice and awarded the Order of Bravery. In 1945, she was assigned as Tito’s personal secretary and later became his wife in 1952.
As First Lady, she participated in numerous diplomatic events and hosted foreign leaders. In the 1970s, tensions with Tito’s close aides led to accusations of political interference, resulting in her isolation and eventual separation from Tito in 1977.
After his death in 1980, she lived in near-complete seclusion under unofficial house arrest, without personal documents or a pension. Her living conditions deteriorated, and she regained her documents only in 2009. She died in 2013 in Belgrade and was buried with state honours at the House of Flowers.
Jovanka Budisavljević was born on 7 December 1924, into a Serb family in the village of Pećane near Udbina, in the Lika region, then part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, now Croatia. Her parents were Mihailo "Mićo" Budisavljević and Milica (née Svilar). She had four siblings: older brother Maksim (b. 1923), younger brother Petar (b. 1926), and two younger sisters, Nada (b. 1934) and Zora (b. 1936). She was named after her maternal grandmother, Jovanka Svilar.
Her father emigrated to the United States as a young man, where his uncles lived, before returning in 1920 to the newly formed kingdom. He purchased 20 acres of farmland and married Milica Svilar. The couple had three children before Mićo briefly moved to Canada. Fluent in English and well-travelled, he became known in the village as the "rich American." During World War II, he served as a translator for the American military mission that landed in the Krbava field. After Milica died of tuberculosis in 1937, Mićo remarried and had a daughter, Mara, with his second wife, Soka Svilar.
Jovanka descended from a prominent noble Budisavljević family, of Serbian origin. One of her ancestors, Prota Tomo Budisavljević, was an Orthodox priest and army major who defended the border against Ottoman incursions. His father, Marko Budisavljević, was raised to the rank of nobility in 1787 by Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor. Tomo’s daughter, Sofia, married Nikola Mandić, and their daughter, Georgina, became the mother of the famed inventor Nikola Tesla, making Jovanka and Tesla distantly related.
In April 1941, when World War II started in Yugoslavia, the Budisavljević family was forced to flee the violently anti-Serb Ustaše regime of the Independent State of Croatia, which targeted one third of the prečani Serbs for forced conversion to Catholicism, another third for expulsion and the final third for extermination. The family's house was eventually burned down by the Ustaše troops. She joined the Yugoslav Partisans shortly thereafter, at the age of 17.
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