Alma Powell, wife of late Gen. Colin Powell, dies at 86

July 29 (UPI) -- Alma Johnson Powell, the wife of deceased Secretary of State Colin Powell , died Sunday. She was 86.

Peggy Cifrino, the former four-star general's chief of staff and family spokesperson, confirmed her death Monday.

"(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."

She was born in Birmingham, Ala., and attended Parker High School and Fisk University in Nashville.

The Powells were married for nearly 60 years. Colin Powell died on Oct. 18, 2021, from complications with COVID-19 .

They met on a blind date in 1961 in Boston. Shortly after they were married in 1963 and she returned to Birmingham, he was deployed to Vietnam as a military adviser.

He became President Ronald Reagan 's national security adviser, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton and secretary of state under George W. Bush .

They lived in 20 different houses together and raised their three children in Virginia, North Carolina, Kansas, Kentucky, Colorado, Georgia and Germany, according to her obituary .

Powell was 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, President Barack Obama's Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and an advisor to the Red Cross of the military district of Washington, according to a biography of Alma Powell on the website of America's Promise Alliance.