Santiago - Hortensia Bussi, the widow of the late Chilean president Salvador Allende, died at the age of 94 at her home in Santiago.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and former presidents Patricio Aylwin and Ricardo Lagos took part in the post-death vigil Friday.

Allende himself committed suicide during the military coup that brought dictator Augusto Pinochet to power in Chile in September 1973.

One of Bussi's daughters, Chilean legislator Isabel Allende, was with her at the time of her death Thursday afternoon, the Allende Foundation said. The cause of Bussi's death was not made public.

"Tencha," as the woman was known, was herself politically active at one point in her life. She particularly advised her socialist husband in questions of gender equality.

Allende and Bussi married in 1940, and they had three daughters. After her husband's death, Bussi went into exile in Mexico, and she only returned to Chile after the end of the Pinochet dictatorship in 1990.(dpa)