Sad, sad, sad.
The woman who served as the inspiration for the mommy in the world famous “Family Circus” comic has died. Thelma Keane was 82.
According to news reports, Thelma, who was the wife of “Family Circus” creator Bil Keane, died of Alzheimer’s disease last Friday.
I happen to be a huge “Family Circus” fan. I started collecting the comic when I was 7 years old (decades ago). I would use all the money I would get from Christmas and birthdays to fund my addiction to the small paperback books that followed the lives of two good-humored parents and their four children. When I was 10 years old I wrote a fan letter to Bil Keane describing the similarities between my own family and his fictional one. Like the character Dolly I was the only girl in my family and I too had two older brothers and one younger.
About a year after I sent my first note I received a form letter from Keane (at least it was his stamped signature at the bottom) thanking me for my loyalty to the strip (actually the comic ran as a single captioned panel with a round border) that he began drawing in 1960. Today the “Family Circus” can still be seen in about 1,500 newspapers around the world. (Even at the age of 85 Bil is still cranking out new material.)
The late Thelma Keane (who Bil referred to as “Thel”) was working as an accounting secretary in the war bond office in her native Australia during World War II when she met Bil. The couple married in 1948 and moved to Bil’s hometown of Philadelphia a short time later. They went on to have five children together and later moved to the Phoenix suburb of Paradise Valley in 1958. Those five children along with “Thel” served as the inspiration for the “Family Circus.”
“She was the inspiration for all of my success,” Bil Keane told reporters yesterday. “When the cartoon first appeared, she looked so much like Mommy that if she was in the supermarket pushing her cart around, people would come up to her and say, ‘Aren’t you the Mommy in ‘Family Circus?’ and she would admit it.”
According to Bil, his wife not only served as the model for the always-loving and ever-patient comic character also named Thel, but she also worked full-time as Bil’s business and financial manager until she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s five years ago. Bil revealed that he and his children placed Thel in an assisted-living center near the family’s home three years ago and that’s where she died last week.
In addition to Bil, Thelma is survived by her daughter, Gayle, sons Jeff, Neal, Glen and Christopher, and nine grandchildren.
Bil described Thelma’s loss as “heartbreaking” but says she continues to live on in his work.
“It makes me realize 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.”
I wonder if Bil plans to draw a tribute to Thelma in an upcoming strip. If so it’ll be one more circle for me to cut out of the paper and add to my collection.
Are you a “Family Circus” fan?
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