Meet the woman who kept Muhammad Ali — and his legacy — alive

Muhammad Ali and his wife Lonnie celebrate the boxer&#039;s 70th birthday in 2012.

(Image credit: Ethan Miller/Getty Images for Keep Memory Alive)

published 10 June 2016

Without Muhammad Ali's fourth wife, Lonnie, the legendary boxer's last 30 years likely would have been very different. "Ali would have been gone and forgotten 30 years ago, if not for Lonnie," said David Kindred, a journalist who covered Ali and wrote a book on the late boxer, in an interview with The New York Times. "She took care of him and created a financial empire for him that made it possible for him to have a comfortable life."

Lonnie first met Ali when she was just 6 years old, and he was 21, during one of Ali's visits to his hometown of Odessa, Louisiana. Lonnie was the daughter of one of Ali's mother's friends. While their relationship wasn't romantic for years, Lonnie says she had an epiphany about her love for Ali at age 17. "I knew I was going to marry Muhammad," Lonnie said. "I was just a kid in school, and I had things I needed to do, but I knew."

Sure enough, when Lonnie was 29 and Ali was 44 — right around the time Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease — the couple married, and Lonnie had been by his side ever since. "She took care of his every need," Ali's longtime friend John Ramsey told The New York Times. "I used to tell Muhammad, 'If reincarnation is true, I want to come back as you,' because Lonnie spoiled him rotten. And her affection never wavered. She stuck by him through everything."