speaking careers were terminated after the newspapers for whom she wrote were pressured into dropping her writing, and constant threats were made against her life and that of her young son. During this period, Mrs Zaimi came down with severe glaucoma and other eye ailments that crippled her and prevented her from writing another book. She worked for the Albanian community in New York and New Jersey, translating at the New York Criminal Courts, and engaging in community activities and helping war refugees in Europe. She also lived for periods in Paris, Rome, Geneva, and Cairo. She was a strong voice in the US against Albania's Communist regime. Her Manhattan home was constantly filled with journalists, artists, writers, diplomats, UN personnel, and visitors from Europe and the Mideast. Due to the onset of blindness, Nexhmie Zaimi reluctantly left New York in the 1980s and moved to a retirement community in Santa Barbara, California. In her late 80s, she took over the care of three children from Kosovo who had been gravely injured by accident in a NATO airstrike. She continued to write her second book until her death. Remaining proud and defiant to the end, in 2003, her body finally gave out. She visited Albanian twice: first time in 1939, and second time in 1986 when she was expelled as persona non-grata from the communist authorities. In Albania and New York, she was widely known as "the First Lady of Albania". Italy had made her a 'Knight Commander of the Crown of Italy.' Written works References 2003 deaths American women journalists 1917 births Albanian emigrants to the United States People from Libohovë Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni People of the Office of Strategic Services 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women