Patsy Swayze, dance teacher, mother of actor, dies

[September 19, 2013]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Choreographer and dance instructor Patsy Swayze, the mother of late actor Patrick Swayze, has died. She was 86.

Swayze died Monday night at her home in Simi Valley, publicist Annett Wolf said. No cause of death was given.

Born in 1927, Patsy Swayze taught dance for decades, and her students included Tommy Tune and Debbie Allen. She taught at the University of Houston for more than a decade and also was a choreographer for the Houston Playhouse Center and the Houston Youth Symphony and Ballet Company.

She moved to Simi Valley in 1980 after choreographing the movie "Urban Cowboy."

"It was rural, like Texas, and the three children still living at home could have horses and dogs," Swayze said of her new home in a 1991 interview with the Los Angeles Times.

Her skills apparently rubbed off on her five children, who became actors and dancers.

Patrick Swayze was well known for his leading roles in "Dirty Dancing" and other films, such as "Ghost." He died in 2009 at 57 after battling pancreatic cancer.

[Associated Press]

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