Long time Fort Myers gymnastics coach dies (PHOTOS)
By GLENN MILLER • gmiller@news-press.com • October 17, 2008


Debbie Roe, a Fort Myers gymnastics coach for more than 30 years, died Thursday less than a year after being diagnosed with amytrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. She had turned 57 on Tuesday.

In her finals weeks Roe’s her ex-husband, Carl Seits, and best friend and employer, Chris Brooks were with her.

“She never complained,” Seits said. “We had a serious talk about it. I told Debbie her brother (Gary) passed away with this and she said this is the way it’s going to be. This is the way it’s going to be until I die. I’m going to live my life."

Roe’s life for decades was coaching children for Brooks at Gymnastics World. She was known to generations of young gymnasts in Fort Myers as “Miss Debbie.”

“She touched so many lives,” said Brooks, who attended Fort Myers High with Roe in the 1960s.

Roe was diagnosed with the neuromuscular disease on Oct. 29, 2007. Her death caught many by surprise because of its swiftness.

“I have had so any calls from people saying what happened,” Brooks said. “They say it usually takes two to five years. I just can’t believe. It’s hard to know she’s not going to be there.”

Roe resided in her downtown Fort Myers apartment until Tuesday before being moved to Hope Hospice in North Fort Myers.

“I still feel like she’s here,” Brooks said. “I still can’t believe it. I’m thinking she had at least another year. You just never know.”

Brooks values the friend she met more than 40 years ago.

“I was very lucky,” Brooks said. “She taught me so much about living life to the fullest.”
Although Seits and Roe were divorced, they remained close.

“She loved kids and loved her job,” Seits said.”She was just so full of energy. You couldn’t slow her down”

She also loved Carl. They were married nine years and divorced in 2005.

“She said I was still her husband as far as she was concerned,” Seits said.
Roe was profiled in The News-Press in January.

“I just have it,” Roe said in January of ALS. “I’m not going to stop. I’m not going to let it get me.”

Roe coached thousands of children through the years.

“I just loved kids,” Roe said in January. “Never had any of my own and everyone I taught was just like my own.”

No services are planned at the moment. Brooks and Seits hope to have a memorial on Saturday, Oct. 25.


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