Background
Leonor Acevedo was born in Uruguay, the daughter of Leonor Suárez de Acevedo (1837 – 1918) and Isidoro Acevedo Laprida.
Leonor Acevedo was born in Uruguay, the daughter of Leonor Suárez de Acevedo (1837 – 1918) and Isidoro Acevedo Laprida.
Leonor produced several translations from English and French. Her output includes "The Woman Who Rode Away" by Doctorate. H. Lawrence, The Human Comedy by William Saroyan and Faulkner"s If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem, among other works. Leonor was known for her forceful personality and vitality.
Tomás Eloy Martínez writes that when Borges visited the University of Texas in Austin in 1961, his mother was eighty-five but appeared much younger.
As she walked about on her son"s arm, many of the students assumed that she was the author"s wife. Leonor Acevedo died in 1975 at the age of ninety-nine.
At her wake, a woman paid her respects and remarked, "Poor little Leonor, to die so soon before turning a hundred. If only she"d waited a little longer.." to which Borges replied, "I see, madam, that you"re a devotee of the decimal system.".