Francesca Maria Barbara Donner (Korean: 프란체스카 도너; Peurancheseuka Doneo; June 15, 1900 – March 19, 1992) was the inaugural First Lady of South Korea, from 1948 to 1960, as the second wife of Syngman Rhee, the first president of the Republic of Korea.

[2] She graduated with a Ph.D. in languages from the University of Vienna, before working at the League of Nations in Geneva as an interpreter and lower-level diplomat.

[4] Donner and Rhee lived initially in New York and Washington, D.C., and then in Hawaii, where a large Korean expatriate community-in-exile was politically active.

[5] After the defeat of Japan in World War II, Rhee returned to Korea in October 1945 with the support of the U.S. government and Donner followed him there a few months later.

[5] In March 1948, Rhee was elected first president of South Korea, an office he held until 1960.