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October 10, 2003, AP Worldstream, Former first lady, vice president of Guyana dies, age 72,

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October 10, 2003, AP Worldstream, Former first lady, vice president of Guyana dies, age 72, 367 words

Dateline: GEORGETOWN, Guyana--Former vice president and first lady Viola Burnham died early Friday in Miami, Florida, after a prolonged battle with cancer, officials said. She was 72.

Burnham, widow of late President Forbes Burnham, flew to the United States earlier this year for treatment after doctors in Guyana told her she had suffered a relapse.

She died at a home with relatives in Miami, said Oscar Clarke, general secretary of the main opposition People's National Congress.

She served as vice president and deputy prime minister from 1985-1991. Her appointment came weeks after her husband, a British-trained attorney, died at age 62 during cancer surgery at a state-run hospital.

Burnham, also a former teacher, will be cremated and her ashes will be flown to Guyana later this month, he said. Her two daughters, Melanie and Ulele Burnham, and other relatives, were at her beside when she died.

Burnham was acting president once when both the head of state and prime minister were away from this South American country.

She had also served as the head of the party's women's branch and was in the vanguard of a movement to make Guyana self-reliant in food and clothing production. She has been not in public much in recent years, attending only annual observances of her husband's death.

It was not clear if she had any other survivors.

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