Vera Zabala Clemente (March 6, 1941 – November 16, 2019) was a Puerto Rican philanthropist who was the head of the Roberto Clemente Foundation. She founded a sports education facility in Puerto Rico and was a Goodwill Ambassador for

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

. She was the wife of baseball player

Roberto Clemente Roberto Enrique Clemente Walker (; August 18, 1934 – December 31, 1972) was a Puerto Rican professional baseball player who played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates, primarily as a right fielder. On December ...

, who died in 1972, and the mother of sportscaster Roberto Clemente Jr. She went to the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

in 2003 to receive her husband's posthumous

Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, alongside the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by decision of the president of the United States to "any person recommended to the President ...

Early life

Vera Cristina Zabala was born in

Carolina, Puerto Rico Carolina (; ) is a Carolina barrio-pueblo, city and Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality on the northeastern coastal plain of Puerto Rico, immediately east of San Juan, Puerto Rico, San Juan and Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico, Trujillo Alto, n ...

in 1941. She graduated from the

University of Puerto Rico The University of Puerto Rico (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Universidad de Puerto Rico;'' often shortened to UPR) is the main List of state and territorial universities in the United States, public university system in the Commonwealth (U.S. i ...

, and worked as a bank teller as a young woman.

Career

Zabala was chair of the Roberto Clemente Foundation, and a Goodwill Ambassador for Major League Baseball. She and her three young sons attended Roberto Clemente's posthumous induction into the

Baseball Hall of Fame The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by a private foundation. It serves as the central collection and gathering space for the history of baseball in the United S ...

in 1973. In his memory, she established the Ciudad Deportiva Roberto Clemente, a sports education facility in

, supported by grants, loans, and an annual telethon that she hosted. "My main purpose was to do what he was planning to do," she said in a 1994 interview. She also established a pediatric clinic in Nicaragua in his memory. She was active in choosing the recipients of the annual

Roberto Clemente Award The Roberto Clemente Award is given annually to the Major League Baseball (MLB) baseball positions, player who "best exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community#Psychology, community involvement and the individual's contribution to ...

. She was a familiar figure at charity events in Puerto Rico and in Pittsburgh, where her husband played baseball. In 1982, she was the first woman to be named captain of a major league All-Star team, when she was captain of the

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

team that year. On July 23, 2003, she went to the White House to receive the

on behalf of her husband. The award was made by

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

for her husband's charitable works.

Personal life

Vera Zabala married Roberto Clemente in 1964. They had three sons, Roberto Jr., Luis, and Enrique, a few years before Roberto Clemente died in a plane crash in 1972. She died in 2019, aged 78 years, after a brief hospitalization in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zabala, Vera 1941 births 2019 deaths People from Carolina, Puerto Rico Puerto Rican philanthropists 20th-century American philanthropists