Mary Kay Letourneau dies of cancer at 58

Mary Kay Letourneau.
(Image credit: AP Photo/Alan Berner, Pool. File)

Mary Kay Letourneau, the former teacher who married a student after being convicted of raping him, died of cancer on Tuesday, her lawyer said. She was 58.

In 1997, the Seattle-area teacher was convicted of second-degree child rape of her former student, 12-year-old Vili Fualaau; she was 34 at the time. Letourneau was paroled in 1998 and prohibited from having any contact with Fualaau, but soon after her release she was found with him in a car. Letourneau returned to prison, serving the remainder of her seven-year sentence.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.