Dana Reeve, wife of the late ???Superman??? actor Christopher Reeve, has died of lung cancer at age 44. Reeve died on Monday night at New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Medical Center. She announced in August 2005 that she had diagnosed with a rare form of lung cancer and that she had never smoked. The announcement came days after ABC News anchor Peter Jennings died of lung cancer.
Like her late husband, Reeve had been an activist for better paralysis treatments. Earlier in her career, she had performed on Broadway and on TV.Reeve, a singer-actress who gave up some of her own career to be one of the nation’s best-known caregivers. Reeve had succeeded her husband as chair of the foundation, which funded research into spinal-cord paralysis cures.
Four months ago, at a fundraising gala for the foundation, Reeve looked healthy in a long, formal gown and said she was responding well to treatment and her tumor was shrinking. She was still looking well on Jan. 13, when she sang Carole King’s ???Now and Forever??? at Madison Square Garden during the retirement ceremony for Mark Messier’s New York Rangers jersey.
Dana Reeve was a constant companion and supporter of her husband during his long ordeal and his work for a cure for spinal cord injuries.
She was performing in the Broadway-bound play ???Brooklyn Boy??? in California when she had to rush home to reach her husband’s bedside before he died. She gave up the role for the New York run.
A month after she was widowed, before her own diagnosis, she told The Associated Press, ???I definitely will be getting back to acting, I am an actress and I do have to make a living.???
A year ago, she won a Mother of the Year award from the American Cancer Society. A society vice president, Dr. Michael Thun, said Reeve ???has shown strength and courage in the face of tremendous adversity.??? Doctors say 1 in 5 women diagnosed with the disease never lit a cigarette.
No funeral plans were announced. The family said donations could be made in Dana Reeve’s memory to the Christopher Reeve Foundation in Short Hills, N.J.
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