Patsy Swayze, the choreographer, dance instructor and mother to the late famous actor Patrick Swayze, has died at the age of 86.
Swayze died Monday night at her home in Simi Valley according to her publicist Annett Wolf. No cause of death has been made public as of yet. However, the Huston Chronicle reported Swayze suffered a stroke on Sept. 8 according to the L.A. Times.
Swayze's credits include providing the choreography for the 1980 film "Urban Cowboy" where she coached actor John Travolta on the movements of the two-step. In addition, she also provided choreography for "Liar's Moon" and "Hope Floats."
She worked on the 2003 film "One Last Dance" with her son Patrick Swayze and daughter-in-law Lisa Niemi Swayze, who directed the film. Patrick met Lisa Niemi when she was a student at his mother's dance studio. The couple married in 1975.
Patsy Swayze taught dance for decades. Her students included Tommy Tune and Debbie Allen. She had a career teaching dance at the University of Huston for more than a decade while working as a choreographer for the Huston Playhouse Center and the Houston Youth Symphony and Ballet company, according to NY Daily News.
Her interest in dance was apparently sparked after a childhood incident involving her and a car crash. Her mother enrolled her in dance classes to help her recover from the accident and rebuild her strength, according to an interview in the Simi Valley newspaper in 2007. Eventually she fell in love with dance and spent the rest of her life making a successful career out of it. Her skills even rubbed off on her five children who each became dancers and actors later in life.
Her death comes just two days before the fourth anniversary of her son, Patrick Swayze's death in 2009 from pancreatic cancer.
