Henriette "Etty" Allen, matriarch of a famed American football family and mother to former Virginia Gov. George F. Allen, has died. She was 90.

According to a statement from the Allen family, she died Jan. 2 after a long illness. A private funeral is planned for her Tuesday in California.

The daughter of an anti-Nazi resistance fighter in occupied Tunisia, she immigrated after World War II to Iowa where she met and married George H. Allen, then a small-college football coach.

Over the next four decades, Allen coached winning teams with the Los Angeles Rams and Washington Redskins and earned a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He died in 1990.

Her son Bruce Allen is now general manager of the Redskins.