Football star's mom embraced life with gusto

With her sons Mike and Ashton playing football at Aliquippa High School, Charlotte Ditka spent a lot of time in her kitchen.

“They would drink a half-gallon of milk when they came home from practice,” said Marie Cellini, her next-door neighbor. “She was always cooking.”

Charlotte Ditka, the mother of NFL Hall of Famer Mike Ditka, died Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015, in Beaver Meadows senior care center in Beaver, of complications of old age. She was 93.

Mrs. Ditka didn't flaunt her son's fame, instead carving out her own larger-than-life persona in Aliquippa, said those who knew her.

“She was the feistiest, strongest and sweetest woman I know,” said her daughter, Mary Ann Stowe.

Mrs. Ditka had a great sense of humor and loved to tell jokes.

“You never knew what she was going to say,” said the Rev. Paul Householder, pastor at St. Titus Catholic Church, where Mrs. Ditka was “very faithful and very involved in the parish.”

She worked on the kitchen crew at St. Titus for many years.

“She was a very interesting and unique person,” Householder said.

Her son Mike went on to play at the University of Pittsburgh and for the Chicago Bears and Dallas Cowboys. He coached the Bears for 10 years and the New Orleans Saints for two years and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1988.

Born March 25, 1921, in Carnegie, the daughter of the late David P. Keller and Myrtle Ashton, Mrs. Ditka and her husband, Mike, moved to Aliquippa in 1941. He died in 1998.

She loved to gamble, taking trips with her friends to Atlantic City and Las Vegas.

“We went everywhere. I'd tell her, ‘I'm gonna get in trouble,' and she'd say, ‘Don't worry about it,' ” said longtime friend Eleanor Pierotti. “I'll never have another friend like her.”

Pierotti said she and Mrs. Ditka traveled to Hawaii and Las Vegas, and made more trips to Atlantic City than she can remember.

Mrs. Ditka was a good wife and mother to her children, said Cellini, who met her in 1954.

“Her house was spotless,” she said. “She was such a good person.”

Mrs. Ditka used to like to sing. “She knew the words to any song,” said her neighbor, Flavia Popovich.

“If she needed anything, she wouldn't hesitate to ask, and I wouldn't hesitate to do it,” she said.

Mrs. Ditka liked to eat and bake pies, her friends said.

“She was such a good cook,” said Pierotti.

She is survived by a daughter, Mary Ann Stowe of Garland, Texas; sons, Mike Ditka of Chicago, Ashton Ditka of Warren and David Ditka of Aliquippa; 10 grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren.

Friends will be received from 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday in Darroch Memorial Chapel, 2640 Mill St., Aliquippa, where prayers will be offered at 9 a.m. Monday followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at 9:30 a.m. in St. Titus Catholic Church.

Craig Smith is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-380-5646 or csmith@tribweb.com.