| Adela Ruiz de Royo | |
| Office: | First Lady of Panama |
| Term Start: | October 11, 1978 |
| Term End: | July 31, 1982 |
| Predecessor: | Fanny Roger de Lakas |
| Successor: | Mercedes Martinez de la Espriella |
| President: | Aristides Royo |
| Birth Name: | Adela María Ruiz González |
| Birth Date: | 15 December 1943 |
| Birth Place: | Grado, Asturias, Spain |
| Death Place: | Panama |
| Spouse: | Aristides Royo (1960s–2019; her death) |
| Occupation: | Mathematics teacher and academic |
Adela María Ruiz González, customary married name Ruiz de Royo (December 15, 1943 – June 19, 2019) was a Spanish-born Panamanian mathematics academic and educator. She served as the First Lady of Panama from 1978 until 1982 during the presidency of her husband, Aristides Royo.[1] [2] She also served President of the Panamanian Academy of Language (Academia Panameña de la Lengua).[1] [3]
Ruiz was born Adela María Ruiz González in a home in the municipality of Grado, Asturias, Spain to parents, José María and Rosalina.[2] She was raised in the nearby city of Oviedo alongside her three sisters, Marta, Mabel, and María José.[2] Ruiz was nicknamed Deli.[2] [4]
By 1960, Ruiz had moved to Salamanca to study medicine.[2] That same year, she met her future husband, a Panamanian national and fellow student at the University of Salamanca named Aristides Royo.[2] The couple married in the early 1960s and eventually had three children - Marta Elena, Irma Natalia, and Aristides José.[2] Ruiz, Royo and their oldest daughter, Marta, moved to Panama permanently on September 17, 1965.[2]
In addition to her own career, Ruiz held the role of the wife of a government minister and politician.[2] She became First Lady of Panama from 1978 to 1982. During her tenure as first lady, Ruiz created the Asociación Pro Obras de Beneficencia.[1]
Ruiz was diagnosed with colon and liver cancer in 2017.[2] She died from the disease on June 19, 2019, at the age of 75.[1] [2] [3] Adela Ruiz was survived by her husband, Aristides Royo, and their three children, Marta Elena, Natalia, and Arístides José.[5] Her funeral was held at the National Sanctuary in Bella Vista, Panama City on June 24, 2019.[1] Ruiz's ashes were returned to her native Spain, where they were partially buried at the Praviano cemetery in Riberas, Asturias.[5] A second funeral mass was held at the Carmelite Catholic Church of Oviedo on October 4, 2019.[5] Shortly before the funeral, her remaining ashes were sprinkled into the Cantabrian Sea by her husband and children.[5]
In December 2019, Ruiz's daughter, Natalia Royo de Hagerman, was appointed as Panama's ambassador to the United Kingdom.[6]