The New York Times · 10 February 1986

CP-1986-014

Marilyn Klinghoffer Dies at 58; Wife of Victim of Ship Hijackers

By ROBERT D. McFADDEN

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Transcribed from the clipping

Marilyn Klinghoffer, the widow of Leon Klinghoffer, who was slain by terrorists aboard the hijacked Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro last fall, died of cancer yesterday at Lenox Hill Hospital. She was 58 years old and lived in Manhattan. Mrs. Klinghoffer, who had entered the hospital two weeks ago, died at about 5 A.M., according to Letty H.

Simon, a friend who often spoke for the Klinghoffer family during the ordeal that had thrust its members into the public spotlight. Though Mrs. Klinghoffer had been ill for more than a year, she had never mentioned it in interviews or her public statements. Until last October, Mrs.

Klinghoffer, a small woman with short gray hair, had lived her life in relative obscurity, a personnel manager for a business- and trade-magazine publisher and, for 36 years, the wife of an appliance manufacturer who had overcome humble beginnings on the Lower East Side.

While the nation came to regard her as a voice of defiance against international terrorism, her family and friends knew her as a person devoted to her 69-year-old husband, who had suffered a stroke several years ago that paralyzed his right side and left him in a wheelchair, able to walk only a few steps with a cane.

Though she continued to work at the magazine publishers, Gralla Publications, and was herself ill, friends said, she spared no effort in caring for her husband, even checking such details as the number of steps he might have to climb or the width of doorways his wheelchair might have to pass through.

In part to celebrate their 36th wedding anniversary last fall, the Klinghoffers joined nine friends from the New York area for a cruise of the Mediterranean aboard the Achille Lauro, and were thus caught up in a drama that captured world attention for weeks. What began as a sunny vacation at sea turned into a nightmare on Oct. 7.

After hundreds of passengers debarked in Alexandria, Egypt, for a sightseeing tour, Palestinian terrorists hijacked the ship, with its crew of 350 and the 97 remaining passengers, including the Klinghoffers. The next day, Oct. 8, the Klinghoffers were among 11 American and 6 British hostages taken at gunpoint to an upper deck. There, over the protests and pleas of Mrs.

Klinghoffer, the terrorists took her husband away and, she later learned, shot him to death and hurled him into the sea. The rest of the passengers, though terrorized, were freed unharmed the next day. The terrorists were apprehended after United States jets intercepted an Egyptian plane taking them to freedom.

They have been convicted of weapons charges and are being held in Italy for trial on murder and hijacking charges. International attention focused on Mrs. Klinghoffer as she returned to her home at 70 East 10th Street and told President Reagan in a telephone call that she had seen the hijackers in jail and had spit in their faces. “Oh, God bless you,” Mr.

Reagan was said to have replied.

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