The woman who inspired the matriarch in the beloved FAMILY CIRCUS comic strip has died. She was 82.
Thelma Keane, the wife of acclaimed cartoonist Bil Keane, died on Friday (23May08) at her home in Paradise Valley, Arizona after a five-year battle with Alzheimer's disease.
Keane began drawing the long-running cartoon in 1960 and based the Mommy character on his wife Thelma. The comic is printed in nearly 1,500 publications worldwide.
The pair met during World War II when he was stationed in Brisbane, Australia, from which Thelma was a native. They married in 1948 and moved to Keane's hometown of Philadelphia. They had five children.
Thelma acted as Keane's business manager and battled for her husband to become one of the first syndicated newspaper cartoonists to win back all rights to his published drawings.
Keane remembers his wife fondly, saying, "The losing of Thel is a heartbreaking thing for me.
"However, it makes me realise how important she was to my worldly success, and I know where she is now, I feel that she's still helping me and probably giving me the inspirations you can only get from an angel in heaven."
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