Kim Howe, killed in Bruce Jenner crash, was a kind widow – NY Daily News
Kim Howe, woman killed in crash with Bruce Jenner, remembered as charitable friend who counted Kardashians as neighbors
The woman killed in a weekend car crash that involved Bruce Jenner was known as a charitable, kind friend who unluckily knew tragedy all too well.
Kim Howe spent her last decade alive living alone with her rescue dog Daisy in her home in Calabasas, a posh southern California enclave where she counted Jenner’s stepdaughters, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian, as neighbors.
That Jenner and Howe, who lived near one another but did not run in the same social circles, would collide in such tragic circumstances Saturday along the Pacific Coast Highway is “the shocker of it all,” according to a neighbor.
Celebrity names are nothing unique in the tony neighborhood northwest of Los Angeles. Canadian crooner Justin Bieber infamously spent time as a resident in the gated community before he sold his massive mansion to Khloe Kardashian. Former Fresh York Jet broad receiver Keyshawn Johnson wields a home there and Howe and her hubby, who records identify as Robert Howe, bought their home for $Two.Five million from Cy Youthfull Award-winning ex-pitcher Bret Saberhagen.
Two days after closing on the two thousand three deal with the onetime Met, Robert Howe collapsed and died of a heart attack, said Jim Pascucci, a realtor with Pinnacle Estate Properties who brokered the sale.
“She was a very stoic lady,” Pascucci said of Howe. “She took it in stride. They were about to leave on a European vacation. They said we could close before or after the vacation. And I spoke to Brett and he desired to close sooner, so we closed on a Friday, and by Monday, (her spouse) had passed away.”
Bruce Jenner is seen walking among the wreckage of his own Escalade as well as a white Lexus and a black Hummer following the crash. Jenner was towing his off-road buggy home when the accident happened.
Pascucci, too, has connections to the Jenner-Kardashian clan. He sold Bruce and Kris Kardashian a home in Park Estates and called them neighbors when the now-divorced duo lived in Hidden Hills, adjacent to Calabasas.
The 65-year-old Jenner has since moved to Malibu, where Kim Howe possessed one of several properties.
“She was just a very sweet lady. She was an animal activist. She loved dogs and was very socially active with that,” Pascucci said. “She was a very providing lady, very charitable. She and her spouse didn’t have any kids, so she put all her energy into that. Her hubby left her very comfy.”
Howe was a big donor and contributor to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a Washington, D.C.-based group that works to encourage healthy nutrition, preventative medicine and medical research.
But what very first drew Howe to the group, in 1989, was their work to end experimentation on animals, founder and president Dr. Neal Barnard told the Daily News.
Howe is pictured here with her rescue dog, Daisy, in 2010. Her beloved pooch passed away recently, a friend said.
Kim Howe, Sixty nine, was killed Saturday in a Malibu car crash involving Bruce Jenner.
“She was a delightful person, a very kind, very delightful person,” he said. “She has a real heart for animals. What troubled her especially was animals being used in experiments. She dreamed to protect animals.”
More recently, Howe shoved an effort in Taiwan to have scientists there end rabies experiments on beagles. Celebrity supporters of the group, including Alec Baldwin and Ellen DeGeneres, also helped end the practice, Barnard said.
In another eerie connection to the Kardashian clan, Barnard said that Kourtney Kardashian, on behalf of the Physicians Committee, wrote a letter to a Nebraska school district in October applauding their healthy eating initiative.
Kourtney and Howe never knew each other, Barnard said.
Barnard, who last spoke to Howe a few weeks ago, said he only learned of his friend’s death on Monday. She had long shoved other donors to set aside a provision in their will to give money to the organization, and she always said she’d done the same, according to Barnard.
The Physicians Committee is beginning to plan a way to honor the longtime booster, he said.
“She was a generous person, a private person,” said Barnard. “We miss her terribly. I keep expecting to talk to her.”
For years, the 69-year-old widow attended Calvary Community Church, where she’d socialize with Pascucci – the realtor – and his wifey.
In the last months, Howe lost her beloved dog Daisy, but was busy traveling to visit friends in Arizona and hadn’t made plans to substitute the pooch, Pascucci said.
On Saturday, Howe was driving her white Lexus along the Pacific Coast Highway when she plowed into the back end of a blue Prius that had stopped brief some one hundred fifty yards ahead of a traffic light. That’s when Jenner, a former Olympic gold medalist, rammed his Cadillac Escalade into the sedan driven by Howe.
A Los Angeles County coroner worker explosions Howe into a van at the scene of a four-car crash involving Olympic gold medalist and reality TV starlet Bruce Jenner in Malibu, Calif., on Saturday.
Howe was propelled into oncoming traffic after Jenner struck her white Lexus from behind.
The influence from Jenner’s car sent the Lexus across a center lane and into oncoming traffic, where a Hummer H2 plowed into it, police said.
Howe’s final moments were caught on camera, when paparazzi, reportedly trailing Jenner, snapped pics of the accident.
“My heartfelt and deepest sympathies go out to the family and loved ones, and to all of those who were involved or injured in this terrible accident,” Jenner, who was unhurt in the wreck, said in a statement Sunday. “I will proceed to cooperate in every way possible.”
A neighbor described the widow as “very sweet and kind and private,” with very little family in the area.
“I’m saddened now that she’s gone that I didn’t know her better,” neighbor Allison Levine told the Daily News. “She was a lovely lady.”
