Mickey ‘The Hammer’ Spillane dies

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – Mickey Spillane liked to say he was a writer, not an author. That was his way of describing his occupation – not as art, but as a skilled, blue-collar line of work.

A Murrells Inlet, S.C., resident since 1954, Spillane died Monday at age 88.

He was so closely associated with his main character, the hard-boiled private eye Mike Hammer, that he took on the nickname “The Hammer,” along with “The Mick.”

Jane Spillane said Monday that she could think of nothing she didn’t adore about her husband. “Oh my goodness, he was the most generous man who walked the Earth,” she said. “He was kind to everyone, even strangers.”

She met Spillane, 28 years her senior, as a child. “I would play with his kids,” she said.

On Oct. 30, 1983, she tied the knot with Spillane.

Spillane, who wrote two children’s books, “The Day the Sea Rolled Back” and “The Ship That Never Was,” helped rear two boys who were not his own, Jane Spillane said. “Many people thought he was really like (his book character) Mike Hammer, but he was really a big bear, a softy,” Jane Spillane said.

Fans loved her husband’s work because of a battle that constantly plays out – good vs. evil.

“Everybody loves somebody who takes on evil and defeats it,” Jane Spillane said. “And that is what Mickey did in his books. He would take on communism. … It wasn’t politically correct, but it was fun.”

She didn’t expect his death to happen when it did, though.

“He had cancer, and he was doing so well,” his widow said. “Everybody thought he would be around for a long time.”