Rep. Sander Levin’s wife Victoria Levin dies at 74

Rep. Sander
Levin’s wife Victoria Levin dies at 74, funeral Sunday Sept. 7

ROYAL OAK (AP) — Victoria Levin, the wife of U.S. Rep. Sander Levin and an
advocate for research on children’s mental health issues, died Thursday, the
congressman’s office said. She was 74.
Vicki Levin had struggled for several
months with breast cancer and died peacefully early Thursday morning surrounded
by her family, Levin’s office said.
She was married to the congressman for
more than 50 years and served as his close political adviser. Before Levin was
elected to Congress in 1982, she worked full-time on her husband’s gubernatorial
campaigns in 1970 and 1974.
In a statement, the congressman’s family called
the Levin marriage a “half-century partnership that served as a very public
model of love, shared public service and progressive advocacy for so many people
in Michigan and Washington, D.C.”
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the
congressman’s younger brother, credited his sister-in-law for her ability to
“nurture and help keep steady her large and active family, while excelling at
her own independent professional career.”
Vicki Levin worked for nearly three
decades as a science research officer for several agencies within the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. Her interest in children with mental
health challenges prompted her husband to lead an effort to rewrite Michigan’s special
education laws while he served as a state senator.
In addition to her
husband, Mrs. Levin was survived by four children, Jennifer Levin Pensler, of
Chevy Chase, Md.; Andrew Levin, of Bloomfield
Township, Mich.; Madeleine Levin, of
Silver Spring, Md.; and Matt Levin, of Montpelier, Vt., and eight grandchildren.
Services for
Levin will be held Sunday at the Ira Kaufman Chapel in Southfield.