Visitation and Funeral for Gordie Howe made Public

Gordie Howe’s family opens visitation, funeral to public

The Red Wings legend will be cremated and his brain will not be studied for possible concussion trauma, Howe’s son, Murray, says.

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A father and his son pay tribute to Gordie Howe by laying flowers on his statue outside of the Sasktel Centre in Saskatoon, Friday. The man known as Mr. Hockey died Friday at age 88. (Matthew Smith / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
By The Associated Press
Sat., June 11, 2016









DETROIT—Gordie Howe’s visitation and funeral will be open to the public.
The visitation is scheduled for Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. — in a nod to his No. 9 jersey — at Joe Louis Arena, the home of the Detroit Red Wings, the team Howe played for during much of his Hall of Fame career that started in 1946 and ended in 1980.
Howe’s family plans to greet the public in the arena, where he will lie in state.
His funeral will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Detroit.



Howe’s son, Murray, wrote in a text to The Associated Press that his father will be cremated and his brain will not be studied for possible concussion trauma.
The family has requested donations be made to the Gordie Howe Traumatic Brain Injury Initiative, the Howe Foundation or the Gordie Howe Fund for Alzheimer’s Research in lieu of flowers.
Howe set NHL marks with 801 goals and 1,850 points that held up until Wayne Gretzky came along. Gretzky tweeted that Howe was the greatest hockey player ever and the nicest man he ever met.
Howe’s last visit to the Joe Louis Arena was March 28, when fans serenaded him during a game against the Buffalo Sabres by singing “Happy Birthday” just a few days before his March 31 birthday.
That he could stand tall again at the arena had looked improbable a year and a half earlier. In October 2014, Howe suffered a stroke, compounding his health problems as he’d already been suffering from dementia, and had gone through a summer punctuated by mini strokes. At the time, Howe was living with his daughter, Cathy, in Lubbock, Texas. He spent the last part of his life with son Murray in Toledo, Ohio.
Murray Howe is a doctor specializing in radiology, whose knowledge of medicine helped prompt a visit to a stem cell clinic. Gordie Howe underwent treatment again in June 2015 and his revival was remarkable, enabling him to make excursions with Murray.
Howe’s wife, Colleen, died in 2009 from Pick’s disease, a neurological condition that causes dementia. In addition to Cathy and Murray, Howe is survived by two more children, Marty and Mark, and nine grandchildren.