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Thelma Keane dies, was Mommy figure in 'Family Circus' comic

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PHOENIX — Thelma Keane, the wife of “Family Circus” cartoonist Bil Keane and the inspiration for the Mommy character in the long-running comic, has died of Alzheimer’s disease. She was 82.

“Family Circus,” which Bil Keane began drawing in 1960, features two parents and their four children, mixing humor with traditional family values. It is now featured in about 1,500 newspapers.

“She was the inspiration for all of my success,” Bil Keane, 85, told The Associated Press from his Paradise Valley home on Sunday. “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.”

Bil and Thelma “Thel” Keane met during World War II in the war bond office in Brisbane, Australia. She was a native Australian working as an accounting secretary, and Bil worked next to her as a promotional artist for the U.S. Army.

“I had this desk alongside the most beautiful Australian 18-year-old girl with long brown hair,” Bil Keane said. “And I got up enough nerve to ask her for a date.”

The two married in 1948 and moved to Bil Keane’s hometown of Philadelphia. The couple had five children and moved to the Phoenix suburb of Paradise Valley in 1958.

Not only was Thelma Keane the inspiration for the always-loving and ever-patient Mommy character, but she worked full-time as her husband’s business and financial manager.

Her family says she was the reason Bil Keane became one of the first syndicated newspaper cartoonists to win back all rights to his comic.

“There was nothing that I did in the cartoon world or in the business world that she wasn’t the instigator of, and she certainly deserves all the credit that I get credit for,” Bil Keane said.