Marie Lombardi: How did Vince Lombardi’s wife die?

Who is Marie Lombardi?

Marie Lombardi was the wife of an American football coach and executive in the National Football League. Marie Lombardi’s husband was so good at his job that he is considered by many Football fans to be the greatest football coach to ever lived.

Marie Lombardi: Bio Summary

Marie Lombardi was born on 25 May 1915 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. She was a mother of two children; Susan Lombardi and Vince Lombardi. Her parents are unknown but It was described in David Maraniss’s book-When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi– that Marie was the daughter of a German Catholic father and an Irish Catholic mother.

According to archive.jsonline.com, Marie met her husband, Vince through her brother while he was a student and a football player at Fordham University in New York. Vince described Marie as tall, blonde, and with blue eyes with a figure that wowed the Fordham men. 

Since Marie met her husband at Fordham University, we believe she had her tertiary education there too though her elementary and middle schools are not known. Marie’s father initially opposed the relationship because Lombardi’s heritage was Italian.

That didn’t stop that love birds from exchanging their vows. Marie and Vince got married in 1940, while he was a teacher and a coach at a Catholic high school in New Jersey. Their marriage was blessed with two beautiful children- Susan Lombardi and her brother Vince Lombardi Jr.

ALSO, READ; Susan Lombardi: What happened to Vince Lombardi’s daughter?

While her husband was away and spending long hours coaching, Marie who was a homemaker was also raising their son and daughter. It wasn’t all rosy for the wife of the legendary coach. Marie Lombardi lost an unborn infant and also a daughter shortly after birth. With her husband being away and also dealing with the losses, she began drinking heavily after the first death, David Maraniss reported in the book.

Despite all these, Marie Lombardi also served a crucial unofficial role in her husband’s coaching career. She served as a buffer between her hard-charging husband and the players he coached. Paul Hornung claimed, Iannone pointed out, that players having trouble with the coach went to Marie, who would get Lombardi to back off a little.

“As contentious as her relationship with Vince could be,” Maraniss writes in “When Pride Still Mattered,” “it was never more clear how much he needed her than when the Packers were on the road.

What happened to Marie Lombardi?

Marie died on 17 April 1982 in West Palm Beach, Florida, California. Marie Lombardi, dead of a prolonged lung ailment at the age of 66, was buried alongside the grave of her husband, famed Green Bay Packer coach Vince Lombardi.

When her husband dead from cancer in 1970, Marie Lombardi helped fight the disease by making annual appearances at the Vince Lombardi Memorial golf tournament in Milwaukee and started another golf tournament in her husband’s honor in the nation’s capital.

Marie’s husband suffered from digestive tract problems in early 1967. Following his refusal to undergo a proctoscopic exam, he got admitted to Georgetown University Hospital. He died in Washington D.C on 3 September 1970 surrounded by his whole family.

He was 57 years old. His funeral was held on September 7 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan. He has received a lot of accolades for his works which include a Statute in Lambeau Field and a lot more.