Rachel Robinson, with a story all her own, deserves a celebration, too

Jackie Robinson died young. Weakened by heart disease and diabetes, the retired ballplayer and civil rights titan died on Oct. 24, 1972, at the age of 53.

Robinson was survived by his two living children, Sharon and David, and his wife, Rachel, to whom he’d been married since 1946. As a sport, a people and a nation mourned the loss of an icon, the Robinson family faced the absence of a father, a husband, a friend. Sharon, David and especially Rachel were simultaneously handed a weighty responsibility: the preservation of a legend’s legacy.

As the inscription on Jackie’s tombstone at Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, so powerfully reads, “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives. ” In the 53 years since Jackie’s death, Rachel Robinson has carried out that mantra to the absolute fullest. In July, she will turn a remarkable 104 years old.

That means Rachel has lived longer — decades longer — in the afterglow of Jackie’s life than she did by his side. In that time, she has kept his flame burning, in the vivid retellings of Jackie’s trials and triumphs, in the heartfelt recollections of their marriage and in the community work she has overseen as part of the Jackie Robinson Foundation. Rachel Robinson’s story is intrinsically linked to that of her husband.