June Rose Bellamy, also Yadana Nat-Mei (; lit. Goddess of the Nine Jewels, 1 June 1932 – 1 December 2020) was the

First Lady of Myanmar First Lady of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar () is the title held by the wife of the President of Myanmar, president or the head of the state. The first lady is also the patron of the Myanmar Women Affairs. The current first lady Kyu Kyu H ...

as the fourth wife of the 4th President of Burma

Ne Win Ne Win (; ; 24 May 1911 – 5 December 2002), born Shu Maung (; ), was a Burmese army general, politician and Prime Minister of Burma from 1958 to 1960 and 1962 to 1974, and also President of Burma from 1962 to 1981. Ne Win was Burma's mili ...

. She was a great-granddaughter of Crown Prince Kanaung.

Early life and career

June Rose was born on 1 June 1932 in

Maymyo Pyin Oo Lwin or Pyin U Lwin (, ; Shan: , ''Weng Pang U''), formerly and colloquially referred to as Maymyo (), is a scenic hill town in the Mandalay Region, Myanmar, some east of Mandalay, and at an elevation of . The town was estimated to have ...

British Burma British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and cultur ...

as the sole child of Princess Hteiktin Ma Lat of the Konbaung dynasty and Herbert Bellamy, an Australian orchid collector long settled in Burma. She is a granddaughter of Prince Limbin. She was She was educated at St Joseph's Convent School, Kalimpong, India, also educated in

Rangoon Yangon, formerly romanized as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar. Yangon was the List of capitals of Myanmar, capital of Myanmar until 2005 and served as such until 2006, when the State Peace and Dev ...

, Burma. After the war, as a teenager, she wrote an essay for a competition called "The World We Want", sponsored by the

New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the '' New York Tribune'' acquired the '' New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and compet ...

, which won a prize to visit the US along with 30 international students. She became a TV host in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

and took up painting. June Rose was offered a female lead role in the war film ''

The Purple Plain ''The Purple Plain'' is a 1954 British war film directed by Robert Parrish, with Gregory Peck playing a Royal Canadian Air Force pilot serving in the Royal Air Force in the Burma campaign in the closing months of the Second World War, who is bat ...

'', as the young Burmese nurse who gives a suicidal pilot (played by

Gregory Peck Eldred Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) was an American actor and one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1970s. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, 12th-greatest male ...

) an interest in life, but says she pulled out during the shooting in

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. "It was so Hollywood, it was ridiculous; it was an insult to anything that had to do with Burma," she said.

Marriage

First

June Rose was first married to Mario Postiglione, a physician and Senior Malaria advisor of

WHO The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and has 6 regional offices and 15 ...

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

and

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

. The couple divorced in 1954, after having two sons, Michael Bellamy Postiglione and Maurice Postiglione.

Second

In 1963 June Rose met

, Burma's new military ruler, in Europe, where she was living. Ne Win suggested she come back to Burma, but she was unwilling to leave Italy. On a later visit he proposed. They married in 1976, but the marriage lasted only five months. Ne Win accused her of being a

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

spy and divorced her.

Later life and death

After she returned to Italy, June Rose taught International and

Italian cooking Italian cuisine is a Mediterranean cuisine#CITEREFDavid1988, David 1988, Introduction, pp. 101–103 consisting of the ingredients, recipes, and cooking techniques developed in Italy since Ancient Roman cuisine, Roman times, and later spread ...

in Florence, as well as carrying on charitable work, through Rangoon-based doctors, putting young Burmese students through medical school. She has since written cookbooks, including ''The Soul of Spice'', featured at the 2017 Turin Book Fair. June Rose died on 1 December 2020 at the age of 88.

In popular culture

*Yadana Nat-Mei is the subject of

Than Win Hlaing ''Than'' is a grammatical particle analyzed as both a conjunction and a preposition in the English language. It introduces a comparison and is associated with comparatives and with words such as more, less, and fewer. Typically, it measures t ...

's historic book ''Yadana Nat-Mei or once First Lady'', first published in 2015. *According to her son Michele Postiglione Bellamy, June Rose completed her memoirs before her death which is expected to be published in June 2021. *A documentary film about her life called ''Rhapsody in June'' is in the works.

References

External links

Studio June Bellamy, Oriental and Italian cuisine school
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bellamy, June Rose Konbaung dynasty Burmese people of English descent 1932 births 2020 deaths Family of Ne Win