Early and Personal Life
He was born in 1913 as the son and third child of his parents, Malietoa Tanumafili I and Momoe Lupeuluiva Meleisea. He became the Mālietoa in 1940 following his father's death in 1939.
Tanumafili was educated at the government run Leififi School in Samoa. He went on to enroll at St. Stephen's School and Wesley College in Pukekohe, both of which are in New Zealand. Malietoa was an active athlete during his younger years. His favorite sports included boxing, rugby and cricket. Malietoa's interest in sports continued throughout his life and he was an avid golfer well into his 90s. He could often be seen driving his golf cart around Samoa.
His wife, Lili Tunu, died in 1986. Tanumafili had nine surviving children at the time of his death in 2007: Su'a Vainuupo, Faamausili Moli, Papali'itele Titiuatoa, Papali'itele Ioane, Papali'itele Douglas (sons) and Seiuli Tutai, Lola Tosi and Momoe (daughters). One child died in infancy, while his sons, Papaliitele Eti,died in 2005, Papali'itele Molioo Laupepa, died in 1985.
Malietoa Tanumafili II was a follower of the Bahá'í Faith. He was the second royal (after Queen Marie of Romania) to be a member of that religion. The Bahá'í House of Worship in Tiapapata, eight kilometers from the country's capital of Apia, was dedicated by him in 1984.
Read more about this topic: Malietoa Tanumafili II
Famous quotes containing the words personal life, early, personal and/or life:
“Wherever the State touches the personal life of the infant, the child, the youth, or the aged, helpless, defective in mind, body or moral nature, there the State enters “woman’s peculiar sphere,” her sphere of motherly succor and training, her sphere of sympathetic and self-sacrificing ministration to individual lives.”
—Anna Garlin Spencer (1851–1931)
“And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea.”
—Bible: New Testament, Matthew 14:25.
“... feminism is a political term and it must be recognized as such: it is political in women’s terms. What are these terms? Essentially it means making connections: between personal power and economic power, between domestic oppression and labor exploitation, between plants and chemicals, feelings and theories; it means making connections between our inside worlds and the outside world.”
—Anica Vesel Mander, U.S. author and feminist, and Anne Kent Rush (b. 1945)
“There’s night and day, brother, both sweet things; sun, moon, and stars, brother, all sweet things; there’s likewise a wind on the heath. Life is very sweet, brother; who would wish to die?”
—George Borrow (1803–1881)