\n
As Lonnie navigated adolescence, Ali was like another big brother to her, dispensing advice that included never getting romantically involved with athletes because they wouldn\u2019t treat her well.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were all enchanted with Muhammad,\u201d Richardson said, \u201cbut as we got older, that enchantment turned into something deeper for Lonnie. I think Muhammad is probably the only man that Lonnie has ever loved.\u201d<\/p>\n
At 17, Lonnie had an epiphany. \u201cI knew I was going to marry Muhammad,\u201d she said in the 2012 New York Times Magazine article. \u201cI was just a kid in school, and I had things I needed to do, but I knew. I was young, but it was intuitive. The thought was like an umbrella, always over my head.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lonnie earned an undergraduate degree in psychology at Vanderbilt in 1978. She served briefly as an employment counselor for the State of Kentucky before taking a job in account sales with Kraft Foods. In 1982, she was invited to lunch by Ali during one of his visits to Louisville.<\/p>\n
Two years had passed since his 10th-round defeat to Larry Holmes in a bout that the actor Sylvester Stallone later described as \u201clike watching an autopsy on a man who\u2019s still alive.<\/p>\n
The meal left a bad taste with Lonnie, who was alarmed by Ali\u2019s condition. He appeared to be depressed and was in poor physical condition. In his 2009 book, \u201cMuhammad Ali: The Making of an Icon,\u201d Michael Ezra wrote that Lonnie agreed to move to Los Angeles to become Ali\u2019s primary caregiver in return for Ali paying for her to attend graduate school at U.C.L.A., an arrangement that he said had the approval of Ali\u2019s wife at the time, Porche.<\/p>\n
Her intervention revived Ali and his fortunes, said Dave Kindred, who covered Ali for The Louisville Courier-Journal, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Washington Post and wrote a book, \u201cSound and Fury,\u201d about the unlikely friendship between Ali and the sportscaster Howard Cosell. \u201cI think Ali would have been gone and forgotten 30 years ago, if not for Lonnie,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ali had holed himself up in his Los Angeles mansion and was a recluse in dire need of medical and financial attention, Kindred explained. \u201cShe took care of him and created a financial empire for him that made it possible for him to have a comfortable life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2018The Right One\u2019<\/h4>\n
In November 1986, Lonnie accompanied Ali to Louisville. She had completed her master\u2019s in business administration, with an emphasis in marketing, at U.C.L.A, and Ali had obtained his divorce from Porche. Lonnie, raised a Catholic, had also converted to Islam. At a get-together with Richardson, Lonnie casually dropped a bombshell. As Richardson recalled, \u201cShe said, \u2018I think Muhammad and I are going to get married when we get back to L.A.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The shock wasn\u2019t that they were getting married. \u201cEveryone could see they were two peas in a pod,\u201d Richardson said. And, she said, there was the conversation with Ali in which he acknowledged Lonnie \u201cbeing the right one.\u201d But holding the ceremony in Los Angeles?<\/p>\n
\u201cI told her: \u2018No way! Absolutely not! You\u2019re going to get married here,\u2019\u201d said Richardson, who helped Lonnie organize a civil ceremony.<\/p>\n