Alma Powell, wife of late Secretary of State Colin Powell, dies at 86

(CNN) — Alma Johnson Powell, the wife of the late Secretary of State Colin Powell, has died. She was 86.

Her death was confirmed by the former diplomat’s chief of staff and family spokesperson, Peggy Cifrino.

“(Powell) was the grounding force of our family,” the couple’s three children, Michael, Linda and Annemarie, said in a statement provided to CNN. “During childhoods marked by constant moving to new homes, we always felt secure, because home was wherever she stood. She was an exemplary role model for us and for the world. She served our country, alongside our father, with intelligence and grace. We will miss her terribly but take comfort in the fact that she had a life so well-lived and is reunited with our father.”

The Powells were married for nearly 60 years, and Alma was by her husband’s side during his remarkable and historic military career. The two met on a blind date in 1961 shortly before he was deployed to Vietnam as a military adviser, and he later rose to become chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff beginning under President George H.W. Bush and secretary of state during George W. Bush’s administration.

Four months after the Powells were married, he was sent to Vietnam, leaving Alma to navigate the first few years of her life as a newlywed alone, which she later called “the defining experience of my life.”

“Part of who I am is because of my career as a military wife. I think of the military as family,” Alma Powell once said. “During the course of our young lives, he was often away. … So, like many military spouses today, you’re essentially a single parent. Your job was to make a home wherever you were. Home was where we were as a family, wherever that was.”

In what was believed to be Colin Powell’s final interview , he told journalist Bob Woodward in July 2021 that his wife was the greatest person he’d ever known.

“She was always there for me, and she’d tell me, ‘That’s not a good idea.’ She was usually right,” he said.

One of those key decisions involved whether Colin Powell would seek the presidency as a Republican in 1996. He enjoyed immense popularity as a key architect of the American-led coalition’s victory in the Gulf War, but The New York Times reported in 1995 that he decided against seeking the office based on the advice of his wife and children, who worried about his safety in a bid to become the first Black commander-in-chief.

“A Black man running for president is going to be in a dangerous position,” Alma Powell said in 1996, CNN reported .

At the time of her passing, Powell was listed as chair emeritus of America’s Promise Alliance, a nonprofit founded by her husband that seeks to help at-risk youths by coordinating the efforts of a “cross-sector association of community organizations, businesses, and government organizations,” according to the National Museum of African American History & Culture.

She also served on the board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, was on President Barack Obama’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities from 2010 to 2012 and was the advisor to the Red Cross of the military district of Washington during her husband’s tenure as chairman of the Joint Chiefs, according to a biography of Alma Powell on the website of America’s Promise Alliance.

Alma Powell was born on October 27, 1937, in Birmingham, Alabama, Cifrino said. She studied speech pathology and audiology at Emerson College in Boston and worked for a time as the staff audiologist for the Boston Guild for the Hard of Hearing. According to Cifrino, her work at the guild included “giving hearing tests, fitting veterans with hearing aids and teaching the deaf to read lips.”

Along with the couple’s three children, Powell is survived by a niece and two nephews as well as “countless beloved extended family members and friends,” Cifrino said in a statement.

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to reflect Colin Powell’s promotion to chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was under President George H.W. Bush. It also has been updated with additional background information.

CNN’s Jamie Gangel and Faith Karimi contributed to this report.

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