{"id":338850,"date":"2025-12-10T06:42:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T06:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/338850\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T06:42:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T06:42:16","slug":"cherryl-barassi-widow-of-afl-great-ron-dies-peacefully-at-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/338850\/","title":{"rendered":"Cherryl Barassi, widow of AFL great Ron, dies peacefully at home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cherryl Barassi was a writer, an animal lover, an environmentalist and a fierce advocate for going on your own terms. The AFL legend\u2019s wife loved her husband, Ron, her family and her life, but spoke openly about dying with dignity.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, she passed away peacefully at her St Kilda home, \u201cas she wished\u201d, her family said.<\/p>\n

\"Cherryl<\/p>\n

Cherryl Barassi supported many social justice causes. Credit: Simon Schluter<\/p>\n

\u201cCherryl was an accomplished artist and a fine writer,\u201d the family said in a statement. \u201cAn animal lover and passionate environmentalist, she was a tireless and vocal supporter of many social justice causes to make the world a kinder, better place.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was blessed with the best stepmother a stepchild could wish for. A funny, generous, intelligent, straight-talking woman, who was always there for us,\u201d her stepson Ron said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe family requests privacy during this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking to this masthead in June last year, Barassi opened up about her feelings about death<\/a> following the loss in 2023 of her husband, Ron,<\/a> an AFL coaching great and champion player who was remembered as one of the game\u2019s most important postwar figures.<\/p>\n

\"Cherryl<\/p>\n

Cherryl and Ron Barassi at home in 2005.Credit: Craig Sillitoe<\/p>\n

She did not qualify for help under Victoria\u2019s voluntary assisted dying laws<\/a>, but weeks out from her 80th year, she set up a comfortable bed in her bathroom, took an overdose of medication and left a farewell note with clear instructions to let her die.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn case it is comforting to anyone,\u201d she said at the time, \u201cthey should know that I felt positive and grateful for the life I\u2019ve had as I put myself off to sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cherryl Barassi was a writer, an animal lover, an environmentalist and a fierce advocate for going on your…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-338850","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}