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.
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 Ronald Reagan 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.”
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 “is survived by her three children, Michael, Linda, and Annemarie and their families, her niece and two nephews, and countless beloved extended family members and friends,” Cifrino said in a statement.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
CNN’s Jamie Gangel contributed to this report.
