Friends of Detroit area coin veteran Hank Heiser will be saddened to learn that Chris, his wife of nearly 40 years, passed away Feb. 22 at a hospice in West Bloomfield, Mich., at age 75. Chris was well known to a lot of older operators in that part of the world. She’d been suffering diabetes along with a weak heart for many years, and then suffered a stroke only the week before her passing. Hank was at her bedside when she died.

An admitted ham, Hank said his wife was “my greatest audience all the years of our marriage. The thing is, even though she’s gone now, I’m still in love with her,” he said. Between the two, there were six offspring, one of whom, Hank’s son Ken, died last year. Hank himself will soon celebrate his 85th birthday. The Philadelphia native, most famous for running Bally’s Livonia office back in the day, still owns and runs a small route. We wish Chris and her husband God’s blessings at this sad time.

Funeral services will take place Sunday noon at the Ira Kaufman Mortuary in Southfield with burial afterward at Beth-El Cemetery.