Margret E. Rey, half of the husband-and-wife team that created the "Curious George" children's books about the irrepressible monkey, has died at age 90.
Rey died Saturday at her home in Cambridge after suffering a heart attack about three weeks ago, her publisher said.She and her husband, H.A. Rey, created the fictional monkey Curious George while living in Paris in the 1930s. The couple escaped on bicycles with the unsold manuscript in 1940 before the German occupation.
After Houghton Mifflin published "Curious George" in 1941, the Reys wrote six more books over 25 years, all about the trouble-prone monkey who wreaks havoc and has to be rescued or forgiven - or saves the day.
Though both were artists, H.A. Rey illustrated the Curious George books while Margret Rey created the stories.
She had met Hans Augusto Rey as a girl, and they married in 1935.