Lee Hee-ho, who died last week at 96, spent a life breaking barriers. Being born and raised a Methodist never got in the way of her love of Kim Dae-jung, a devout Catholic she married in 1962. In 1950, she graduated from South Korea’s prestigious Seoul National University, with a degree in education — not an easy feat in a country that had just emerged from 40 years of ruthless Japanese occupation, preceded by 500 years of fiercely androcentric feudal Chosun dynasty. Soon after her graduation, Kim Il Sung’s North Korea invaded South Korea, triggering the fratricidal Korean War. Following the July 27, 1953, armistice that halted hostilities on the Korean Peninsula, she attended the now defunct liberal arts Lambuth Methodist University in Jackson, Tenn., obtaining a second B.A., this time in social science. In 1958, she received an M.A. in social science from Scarritt College in Neosho, Mo.

Upon her return to Korea, she became secretary-general of YWCA Korea and a feminist activist. As her husband turned into one of the iconic leaders of the pro-democracy movement in South Korea, her faith and devotion never wavered. Kim Dae-jung was ostracized, imprisoned, exiled, sentenced to death, and targeted in assassination attempts by South Korea’s authoritarian government. In 1997, he won the first election that brought a peaceful transition of power to the opposition in South Korea. As she stood by her husband, Lee Hee-ho’s resoluteness was tried again, as Kim Dae-jung steered South Korea through the tempest of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis.