George Clooney said he’s mourning his “hero” older sister, Adelia “Ada” Zeidler, who died Friday. She was 65.
Zeidler died of cancer, her younger brother told People.
“My sister, Ada, was my hero,” Clooney told the outlet in an exclusive interview. “She faced down cancer with courage and humor. I’ve never met anyone so brave. Amal and I will miss her terribly.”
Zeidler “died peacefully surrounded by the people she loved” at St. Elizabeth Healthcare in Edgewood, Ky., according to her obituary.
The siblings remained close over the years, even as Clooney’s high-flying, award-studded Hollywood life took him far from Augusta, Kentucky, where the pair grew up. Zeidler opted to stick close to their hometown after attending college in Louisville and Northern Kentucky, and married retired army captain Norman Zeidler in 1987.
Though Zeidler at one point considered going into acting, which she said she “enjoyed” and “was fairly okay at,” she eventually realized “I did not have a thick enough skin for it,” she told the Daily News in a 2012 interview. She became a bookkeeper instead.
“I worked at Toys ‘R’ Us and Kohl’s,” she told The News. “I enjoyed it, but mostly it was a way to get the money to come home and pay the rent and those sorts of things. I really enjoyed being a wife and a mother, and that kind of wound up taking precedence with me.”
At one point Zeidler led Augusta’s Annual White Christmas Parade as grand marshal, her obituary noted. The “talented artist” was an avid volunteer who worked for several years as an elementary art teacher at Augusta Independent Schools and belonged to the Augusta Art Guild. She also shared her love of books and reading by volunteering in the school library.
“Augusta Independent deeply mourns the loss of ‘Miss Ada,’ ” the school system said in a statement. “She spent years volunteering for our school district, especially in the library, and was extremely generous with her time by giving countless hours back to the youth of our community. We extend our thoughts and prayers to the Zeidler and Clooney families during this difficult time.”
Zeidler outlived her husband, who died of a heart attack in 2004 at age 47. Adelia Zeidler leaves behind parents Nick Clooney and Nina Bruce Warren; children Nick Zeidler and Allison Zeidler Herolaga and her husband, Kenny; George and Amal Clooney, and numerous uncles, aunts and cousins, her obituary said.
