Halaevalu Mataʻaho ʻAhomeʻe (29 May 1926 – 19 February 2017) was Queen of Tonga from 1965 to 2006, as the wife of

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV (Siaosi Tāufaʻāhau Tupoulahi; 4 July 1918 – 10 September 2006) was List of monarchs of Tonga, King of Tonga from 1965 until his death in 2006. He was the tallest and heaviest Tongan monarch, weighing and measuring . ...

. She was the

mother A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of ges ...

of King George Tupou V and the current King of Tonga,

Tupou VI Tupou VI (ʻAho‘eitu ʻUnuakiʻotonga Tukuʻaho; born 12 July 1959) is King of Tonga. The youngest child of King Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV, he served as Prime Minister of Tonga from 2000 to 2006. Following his elder brother's accession to the ...

Biography

Halaevalu Mataʻaho ʻAhomeʻe was born on 29 May 1926, the eldest daughter of the Hon. Tevita Manu-’o-pangai, ‘Ahome’e, sometime Governor of Vava’u and Ha’apai and Minister for Police and his wife, Heuʻifanga Veikune, a great-granddaughter of the

Tu'i Tonga Tu'i, also spelled more simplistically Tui, is a Polynesian traditional title for tribal chiefs or princes. In translations, the highest such positions are often rendered as "king". For details, see the links below various polities. Traditionally, ...

. She was also a great-great-granddaughter of

Enele Maʻafu ʻEnele Maʻafuʻotuʻitonga, commonly known as Maʻafu, (circa 1816 — 6 February 1881) was a Pacific islander who held important titles in two countries in the Pacific. He was a traditional Tongan Prince and a Fijian chief nominated and ins ...

Education

She was educated at St Joseph's Convent School, Nuku’alofa, and St Mary's College, in Auckland, New Zealand.

Marriage

On 10 June 1947, Halaevalu married her distant relative Crown Prince Tāufaʻāhau of Tonga (eldest son of Queen Sālote Tupou III of Tonga (1900-1965) and Prince Viliami Tungī Mailefihi). The Queen Mother celebrated her 85th birthday in 2011 with a five-day celebration held in May. The celebrations began with a garden party for more than one hundred Tongan women held at the home of the President of the Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga, Rev. Dr. ‘Ahio. The Queen Mother attended a Roman

Catholic mass The Mass is the central liturgical service of the Eucharist in the Catholic Church, in which bread and wine are consecrated and become the body and blood of Christ. As defined by the Church at the Council of Trent, in the Mass "the same Christ ...

at St. Mary's Cathedral in Ma'ufanga with King Siaosi Tupou V on 26 May 2011. The Tongan Ministry of Education, Women Affairs and Culture held a student celebration for her birthday on 27 May, with

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

students from Pangai Lahi to Teufaiva Park, presenting the Queen Mother with birthday gifts. A private party was held in Ha'avakatolo the next day, followed by a church service held at the Centennial Church on Sunday 29 May, and a luncheon at the Royal Palace in

Nukuʻalofa Nukualofa ( , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Tonga. It is located on the north coast of the island of Tongatapu, in the country's southernmost island group. History First western records of Nukualofa On 10 June 1777, British ...

. The Queen Mother embarked on a two-week trip to the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

in July and August 2011. Specifically, the Queen Mother came to visit the Tongan United Methodist Church in

West Valley City, Utah West Valley City is a city in Salt Lake County and an inner suburb of Salt Lake City in the U.S. state of Utah. The population was 140,230 at the 2020 census, making it the second-most populous city in Utah after Salt Lake City. The city inco ...

, whose congregation had raised approximately $500,000 in less than a year to pay off the mortgage on the building. The Mayor of West Valley City, Michael K. Winder, awarded the Queen Mother the key to the city on July 27, 2011. She also met with Utah Governor

Gary Herbert Gary Richard Herbert (born May 7, 1947) is an American politician who served as the 17th governor of Utah from 2009 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, he chaired the National Governors Association during the 2015–2016 cycle. Herbert w ...

the next day.

Death

On 19 February 2017, the Queen Mother died aged 90 in

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

, New Zealand, a week after leaving Tonga. Her granddaughter

Princess Lātūfuipeka Tukuʻaho Princess Lātūfuipeka (Angelika Lātūfuipeka Halaevalu Mataʻaho Napua-o-kalani Tukuʻaho; born 17 November 1983, in Nukuʻalofa) is a Tongan royal and a member of the House of Tupou. The only daughter of Tupou VI, King of Tonga, Princess Lāt� ...

, High Commissioner of Tonga to Australia, was reportedly by her bedside when she died. The Queen Mother's remains were flown back to Tonga on 28 February, after lying-in-state at the Tongan royal residence, ʻAtalanga in Epsom, Auckland. The date of her funeral on 1 March was declared a public holiday by the Tongan government, which also observed ten days of mourning.

Honours

National

* : Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Pouono * : Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the Crown * : Knight Grand Cross of the Order Order of Sālote Tupou III * : Dame of the King George Tupou V Royal Family Order * : Recipient of the Red Cross Medal * : Recipient of the King Tupou VI Coronation Medal * : Recipient of the King George Tupou V Coronation Medal * : Recipient of the King Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV Silver Jubilee Medal

Foreign

* : Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, Special Class * : Paulownia Dame Grand Cordon of the

Order of the Precious Crown The is a Japanese order, established on January 4, 1888 by Emperor Meiji of Japan. Since the Order of the Rising Sun at that time was an Order for men, it was established as an Order for women. Originally the order had five classes, but on Apr ...

* : Grand Cross of the Order of Propitious Clouds * : Recipient of the

Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal The Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal () is a commemorative medal instituted to celebrate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on 2 June 1953. Award This medal was awarded as a personal souvenir from the Queen to members of the Royal Family ...

* : Recipient of the

Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal The Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal () is a commemorative medal created in 1977 to mark the 25th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's accession in 1952. The medal is physically identical in all realms where it was awarded, save for Canada ...

Ancestry

''See the Tongan language page and ancestor's page ...''

Family tree

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Halaevalu Mataaho Ahomee 1926 births 2017 deaths Tongan nobles Royal consorts of Tonga Queen mothers Princesses by marriage Grand Crosses Special Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Order of the Precious Crown members Grand Cordons of the Order of the Precious Crown Dames Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Tonga People educated at St Mary's College, Auckland 20th-century Tongan women 21st-century Tongan women 20th-century Tongan people 21st-century Tongan people Tongan Methodists Mothers of Tongan monarchs