Millions followed Muhammad Ali’s boxing career, but no one followed it any closer than his mother.
Odessa Lee Grady Clay, who died Sunday at 77, was her son’s biggest booster during his rise to the heavyweight championship.
During the days when women were a rare sight in boxing, Clay “went into every greasy little gym she could to see him fight,” said her niece, Coretta Bather. “She decided to break the rules.”
Clay, disabled by a stroke in February, died at a suburban Louisville nursing home.
Ali and his mother had not been able to talk in recent months because of her illness, said John Ramsey, a family friend and radio personality. But Ramsey said Ali felt he could communicate with his mother without words.
Ali, who lives on a farm in Berrien Springs, Mich., was in Louisville last weekend to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the fight in which he dethroned heavyweight champ Sonny Liston.
Relatives and friends recalled the confidence Clay had in her son when she attended his championship bouts and triumphal world tours.
“She did worry,” said Rahaman Ali, the former champion’s younger brother. “But she didn’t worry that much. She knew he could take care of himself.”
Once Muhammad Ali became famous, his mother became a world traveler. She rarely missed his fights, traveling to Puerto Rico, Japan, Indonesia and Africa to see him box.
Jimmy Ellis, Ali’s former sparring partner and the heavyweight champion in 1968, remembered Odessa Clay’s quiet dignity.
“Ali is quite like she is,” Ellis said.
Odessa’s husband, Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr., died in 1990.
Her funeral was scheduled for Wednesday. Sasha Young, a funeral home spokeswoman, said the service would be open to the public.
