Alma Powell, the widow of Colin Powell, the first Black Secretary of the U.S. Department of State, has died. Alma Powell was 86 years old.
Mrs.Powell’s death was confirmed to CNN by her three children. A cause of death has not been revealed.
“(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 married Powell, then a lieutenant in the Army, shortly before he left for his first deployment to Vietnam in 1962. Her husband rose to the rank of general, becoming the first Black national security adviser in 1987 and the youngest and first Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1989.
“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,” Alma said on a radio show.
In a career mostly as a military spouse, Mrs. Powell was also a children’s book author and served on the board of America’s Promise Alliance, which focuses on civic engagement, education and workforce development.
She also served on the board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
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.
Alma Powell is survived by her three children, a niece, two nephews, and “countless beloved extended family members and friends,” Peggy Cifrino, a spokeswoman for the family, said in a statement.