Alex Byington/Kerrville Daily Times
Suzie Heywood spends a moment with her late husband, retired U.S. Marine Col. Ralph Heywood, at the Kerrville (Texas) Funeral Home. Heywood, a former Detroit Lion who served in three wars, died April 10, 2007. He was 85 and suffered from Alzheimer’s.(AP)
Even at 70 years old, Suzie Heywood refuses to sit back and accept the life of a retired widow.
With the spirit and vigor of someone half her age, and the fire of someone even younger, Suzie has gone toe-to-toe with mountainous men some three-times her size for no other reason than it was the right thing to do.
“When something’s wrong, you try to fix it, and you don’t turn tail and run,” she said simply. “And this is wrong, and it’s been wrong for a long time, and it gave me a passion.”
The widow of the late Col. Ralph Heywood — a 32-year veteran of the Marine Corps who served in three wars and spent four years playing during the National Football League’s heyday — the former school teacher took up a cause for which she will never receive any compensation — disability benefits for retired NFL players in need.
“Right at first, it was my salvation,” Suzie Heywood said about the time after her husband’s death last year. READ MORE
