Gordie Howe’s last living sibling, Helen Cummine, dies at 90

A rich chapter has closed in the remarkable family life of NHL superstar Gordie Howe.

Helen Cummine, the youngest and last surviving sibling of the late Mr. Hockey’s eight brothers and sisters, died Wednesday in Saskatoon. She was 90.

“She was a special lady, the last of the Howes,” Darcy Bruce said of her late mother.

“She lived in Saskatoon all of her life with my dad, Raymond, a firefighter who died of cancer in 2002. All of her kids -- Dave, Larry, Janet and myself -- live in Saskatoon, as well as her grandkids, Jason, Danny, Candice and Emily. She was an avid dog lover, as we all are, and her little dog, Marty, was by her side when she passed. My husband, Ken, and I have him now.”

Gordie’s eldest son, Marty, might or might not have been the inspiration for the name of Helen’s dog. Her brother’s streak of mischief was a mile wide, Mr. Hockey once having named a toy poodle “Rocket” as a gentle poke at his ferocious NHL rival Maurice Richard.

Helen Cummine and her daughter, Darcy Bruce, in 2019 at the monument to Gordie Howe in R.M. of Corman Park in Floral, Saskatchewan, Mr. Hockey’s birthplace.

“Helen will be missed. She was so much like Gordie when he was off the ice… she had that Howe dry sense of humor,” Marty said, and anyone who knew Howe understands that means Saskatchewan prairie dust-bowl dry.

Helen and Gordie were last together in February 2015, Howe the guest of honor at the 55th annual Kinsmen Sports Celebrity Dinner in Saskatoon.

Sixteen months before his death at age 88, in fragile health, Mr. Hockey lifted the roof off sold-out TCU Place when he emerged from behind a curtain accompanied by his sons Murray, Mark and Marty. It would be Howe’s final public appearance.

The evening was headlined by fellow NHL icon Wayne Gretzky as well as Lanny McDonald and father and son Bobby and Brett Hull, all Hockey Hall of Famers.

Gretzky has long said that Gordie Howe is his choice as the greatest NHL player of all time.

"A lot of times when you meet your idol, kids walk away saying, ‘It wasn’t as good, it wasn’t as great as I thought it would be,’” he said before the Kinsmen event. “Gordie was nicer and better and bigger than anyone.”

Howe’s proud sisters, Vi and Helen, joined their legendary brother that evening, as starstruck as everyone in the building. It was a bittersweet event in that Vic Howe, who from 1951-55 had played 33 NHL games for the New York Rangers, had died a few days earlier at age 85, fully planning to have attended his brother’s celebration.

Helen Cummine with NHL legend Wayne Gretzky as the February 2015 Kinsmen Sports Celebrity Dinner tribute to Gordie Howe.

“I thought, ‘My gosh, this might be the last time we’re all together,’ ” Helen said prophetically on the eve of the Kinsmen dinner. “Now, the three of us will carry on.”

Violet Watson was the second-last of the Howe siblings to die, at age 95 on April 28, 2020. It was young Vi who sat across the family’s Saskatoon kitchen table watching brother Gordon practice variations of his signature, choosing the version she liked best. Howe’s flowing autograph would become one of the most famous in all of sports.

The Stanley Cup was in Saskatoon for the 2015 Kinsmen event. Helen posed with it for a photographer that night, but playfully wouldn’t touch the trophy that her brother had won four times with the powerhouse Detroit Red Wings between 1950-55.

Almost a half-century earlier, the Howe family had gathered in Saskatoon on July 22, 1966, for a family reunion and gala celebration for an event headlined “Gordie Howe Day.”

Born March 31, 1928, in Floral, Saskatchewan, Howe moved at nine days of age to the “big city” with his parents, Ab and Catherine. The couple would raise nine children -- sons Gordie, Vic, Norm and Vern and daughters Edna, Gladys, Vi, Joan and Helen.

A private 1966 dinner organized at a local restaurant produced a remarkable photo of all nine Howe children with their parents, published in the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix as part of the newspaper’s blanket coverage.

A photo of all nine Howe siblings with their parents, Ab and Catherine, and spouses at a private dinner during the July 1966 tribute to Gordie Howe in Saskatoon. Gordie is in the front row, far right.

The event saw Howe, his wife, Colleen, and children Marty, 12, Mark, 11, Cathy, 7, and Murray, 5, arrive for a whirlwind celebration that included a downtown parade, noon-hour civic luncheon, a children’s program at the city’s arena freshly named for Howe, a private family dinner then a testimonial and entertainment back at the arena.

A vast area known as Holiday Park, where the future star had played as a boy, was renamed Gordon Howe Park.

In 2015, Helen considered the fame of Mr. Hockey.

“Like I told one woman, you go through the years and think, ‘Yeah, he’s a brother,’ ” said told Star-Phoenix reporter Kevin Mitchell. “Then you start watching a few hockey games.

“And now, my gosh -- all this love and attention and acknowledgment of his troubles. It just gets you thinking. You realize that he is something. Maybe he isn’t just the kid who used to bug you all the time. …

“Most of the boys in the family were kind of soft-spoken. I always say I don’t know how come the girls were all loudmouths.”

Sixteen months later, Helen remembered Gordie upon his death.

“I guess he didn't want to fight anymore, but what a fight he had,” she said. “Oh God, I just don’t know. I’m going to miss him so, so much.”

Top photos: Helen Cummine with her legendary brother Gordie Howe backstage at the February 2015 Kinsmen Sports Celebrity Dinner in Saskatoon, and with the Stanley Cup that evening.