Patrick Swayze 1952-2009

DEVOTED DUO

Like they did everything else through 34 years of marriage, Patrick Swayze and wife Lisa Niemi battled his struggle with pancreatic cancer the only way they knew how: side by side. "I would be happy if he's around for a long time, and I am being whatever I need to be to help him do that," she told PEOPLE in April. But after a Stage IV diagnosis in February 2008, the risk-taking actor – who told Barbara Walters he had lived "159 lives" – finally died on Sept. 14, 2009 at the age of 57.