Mussolini’s Strong-Willed Daughter Dies

Edda Ciano, who renounced her surname after her father - fascist dictator Benito Mussolini - ordered her husband’s execution, died Saturday. She was 84.

Edda Mussolini, born Sept. 1, 1910, was described by historians as a stubborn and independent first-born child. RAI state TV said she was the first Italian woman to publicly drive a car and to wear pants.

In 1930, Edda married Count Galeazzo Ciano, a future Italian foreign minister. In 1943, with World War II going badly for Italy, Ciano voted as part of the Fascist Grand Council against the dictator. The vote led to an arrest order for Mussolini and the eventual fall of his regime.

After Mussolini was freed by Italy’s German occupiers, he ordered his son-in-law executed in 1944 despite Edda’s pleadings. The young widow then renounced her last name.

“I prefer to be the wife of a victim of fascism than the daughter of Il Duce,” she said at the time.

She is survived by two children and two brothers.