Elizabeth, the Queen Mother

Name at birth: Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon

Known widely as The Queen Mother during the last decades of her life, the former Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was the wife of Britain's King George VI and the mother of Queen Elizabeth II. She was the daughter of Lord Glamis, later 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne; their family was descended from the royal house of Scotland. She married Albert, Duke of York on 26 April 1923; when his elder brother King Edward VIII abdicated in 1936, Albert became King George VI and Elizabeth became the Queen Consort. Their daughter became Queen Elizabeth II after the 1952 death of George VI, and the elder Elizabeth became known as the Queen Mother. She lived another 50 years, often performing ceremonial functions and becoming a sentimental favorite of the public. She died in her sleep at age 101, less than two months after the death of her daughter Princess Margaret.