Spain's richest woman dies
August 16, 2013
The Spanish company that owns the Zara fashion chain confirmed Friday that Rosalia Mera died at the age of 69. Inditex itself did not give any details about what caused her death.
But a regional Spainish regional newspaper, La Voz de Galicia, reported Mera died late Thursday night in a hospital in northwestern Spain.
The daily said the richest female Spaniard had been on vacation with her daughter on the Mediterranean island of Menorca where she suffered a stroke. She was carried to hospital on mainland Spain on board a rescue plane, the newspaper added.
Multi-faceted personality
Mera started out as a seamstress and helped build Inditex from the clothing store she ran together with her then husband, Armanico Ortega, who's listed by Forbes as the world's third richest person.
Mera herself accumulated a fortune of $6.1 billion (4.7 billion euros), according to Forbes.
Apart from her successful business operations, Mera was also involved in a number of grassroots civil rights movements. Among other things, she publicly criticized draft legislation aimed at tightening Spain's abortion law.
hg/mz (AP, dpa)