BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. - Colleen Howe, a successful business woman and the wife of hockey great Gordie Howe, has died. She was 76.
The Detroit Red Wings say she died Friday at the family home in the Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Gordie Howe spent most of his Hall of Fame career with the Wings.
Colleen Howe had been suffering from frontal temporal dementia, an incurable neurological form of dementia known as Pick's disease.
"We extend our deepest condolences to Gordie, Mark, Marty, Cathy, Murray and the entire Howe family," Red Wings owners Mike and Marian Ilitch said in a statement. "Colleen was a pioneer hockey wife and hockey mom and devoted her entire life to the betterment of the game. She will be sincerely missed by us and all who knew her."
Colleen Howe was such an integral part of her husband's hockey career that her nickname was Mrs. Hockey.
She was the outspoken business manager of one of the most prominent families in the history of the sport, and as the first female hockey player agent she was as forceful in the boardroom as her husband was in arena corners.
But her illness had taken a toll.
"I thank God for the years we had," Gordie Howe said upon marking their 50th wedding anniversary in 2005.
She was the first woman inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame and was also honoured as Michigan's Sportswoman of the Year in 1973.
She is survived by Gordie and her sons Marty, Mark and Murray, daughter Cathy, nine grandchildren and one great grandchild.
Funeral arrangements have not been announced
The Detroit Red Wings say she died Friday at the family home in the Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Gordie Howe spent most of his Hall of Fame career with the Wings.
Colleen Howe had been suffering from frontal temporal dementia, an incurable neurological form of dementia known as Pick's disease.
"We extend our deepest condolences to Gordie, Mark, Marty, Cathy, Murray and the entire Howe family," Red Wings owners Mike and Marian Ilitch said in a statement. "Colleen was a pioneer hockey wife and hockey mom and devoted her entire life to the betterment of the game. She will be sincerely missed by us and all who knew her."
Colleen Howe was such an integral part of her husband's hockey career that her nickname was Mrs. Hockey.
She was the outspoken business manager of one of the most prominent families in the history of the sport, and as the first female hockey player agent she was as forceful in the boardroom as her husband was in arena corners.
But her illness had taken a toll.
"I thank God for the years we had," Gordie Howe said upon marking their 50th wedding anniversary in 2005.
She was the first woman inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame and was also honoured as Michigan's Sportswoman of the Year in 1973.
She is survived by Gordie and her sons Marty, Mark and Murray, daughter Cathy, nine grandchildren and one great grandchild.
Funeral arrangements have not been announced
By The Canadian Press
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