By PFW staff
Jan. 18, 2008

Rams owner Georgia Frontiere died Friday after battling breast cancer for several months. She was 80.

“Georgia Frontiere was the first lady of sports in her native St. Louis,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement that also praised her philanthropy and concern for retired NFL players.

Frontiere inherited principal ownership of the Rams after her sixth husband, Carroll Rosenbloom, drowned in 1979, becoming one of the few female owners of a major professional sports franchise. During her control of the team, it moved twice, first from Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in downtown L.A. to suburban Anaheim in 1980, and then to her hometown of St. Louis in 1995.

A former nightclub singer, Frontiere was married seven times, starting at age 15. Her seventh husband, Dominic Frontiere, was an award-winning composer, but they divorced in 1988 after he had served time in prison on tax charges related to the scalping of more than 2,500 tickets to the 1980 Super Bowl in Pasadena.

After the Rams moved to St. Louis, they went on to win Super Bowl XXXIV, 23-16 over Tennessee, in January 2000. “The Greatest Show on Turf” brought a wide-open brand of football to the NFL, which several other teams tried to emulate.

“It’s been my privilege for 28 years to work for a loyal, generous, and supportive owner who was totally committed to her football team,” Rams president John Shaw said in a statement. “This is an enormous loss for me and for the Rams’ organization. All of our prayers and sympathy go out to her family.”

Frontiere is survived by two children, son Dale (Chip) Rosenbloom and daughter Lucia Rodriguez, six grandchildren and Earle Weatherwax, her companion of 19 years.