Bears' Urlacher mourns passing of motherChicago Bears middle linebacker Brian Urlacher today lost the person he once called “my heart” when his mother Lavoyda Lenard passed away.
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Chicago Bears middle linebacker Brian Urlacher lost the person he once called “my heart” when his mother, Lavoyda Lenard, died unexpectedly Monday. She was 51.
“My mother, Lavoyda, unexpectedly passed away Monday at her home in Texas,” Urlacher said in a statement released by the team Wednesday. “My first priority right now is to be with my family as we mourn her loss and make the arrangements to lay her to rest. This is a very difficult and emotional time for us and I sincerely ask that you respect our privacy. Thank you.”
Urlacher has been excused from the team to be with family. His status for the game Sunday in New Orleans has not been determined.
Lt. Brent Smith of the Titus County Sheriff's Office said Urlacher's mother apparently died of natural causes.
Urlacher's mother married Brad Urlacher when she was 16 and had three children, Sheri, Brian and former Bear Casey, by the time she was 19. She and Brad Urlacher divorced when she was 25.
Lavoyda and her children moved from Washington state to Lovington, N.M. where her parents lived. She worked three jobs simultaneously to support her children, at a laundromat, grocery store and convenience store.
Six years after they moved to New Mexico, Lavoyda married Troy Lenard, an oil field pipeliner who became Brian’s stepfather. Both helped shape Urlacher.
“My mom is my heart,” Urlacher told ESPN Magazine nine years ago. “But my [step]dad was my role model, the hardest working man I ever knew.”
Lavoyda later divorced Lenard, who since has passed away. She lived in Mount Pleasant, Texas.
