Thelma Keane - The Family Circus

Bil Keane began drawing The Family Circus comic strip in 1960. He modeled the Mommy in the cartoon of his wife, Thelma. The Mommy character in the comic was even named "Thel" after his wife's nickname. Bil Keane later told the Associated Press after Thelma's death in 2008, "She was the inspiration for all of my success. When the cartoon first appeared, she looked so much like Mommy that if she was in the supermarket pushing her cart around, people would come up to her and say, 'Aren't you the Mommy in 'Family Circus?' And she would admit it." Keane later altered the "Mommy" character's hair in 1996 because the style had become outdated.

Thelma Keane worked as the full-time financial and business manager for her husband while he continued to draw The Family Circus. Her family credited Thelma's business skills as the main reason that Bil Keane became one of the first syndicated newspaper cartoonists in the country to regain the full rights to his comic. She led the 1988 negotiations with King Features Syndicate to return the copyrights for The Family Circus. King Features finally agreed to return the rights to the cartoon to Bil Keane after long and protracted talks with Thelma Keane. The comic strip currently runs in approximately 1,500 newspapers as of 2008.

Thelma Keane died at the age of 82 at the Barton House assisted living facility in Paradise Valley, Arizona on May 23, 2008. She had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Keane was survived by her husband, Bil Keane, and the couple's five children, Gayle, Neal, Glen, Jeff and Christopher. Her youngest son, Jeff Keane, continued to help his father draw and publish The Family Circus as an assistant inker and colorist, taking the full-time role of being the lead cartoonist after Bil Keane died in 2011.