Lisa Niemi

Lisa Anne Haapaniemi (born May 26, 1956) is an American actress and dancer and was the wife of actor, singer and dancer Patrick Swayze from 1975 until his death in 2009.

Lisa Niemi was born in Houston, Texas, to Finnish Americans Edmond Melvin Haapaniemi and Edna Karin Hyttinen.

In 1971, she began attending a Houston area ballet school, the Houston Ballet Dance Company, where she met the owner/director's son, Patrick Swayze, to whom she was married from 1975 until his death from pancreatic cancer, on September 14, 2009.

Soon after their marriage, the couple moved to New York to pursue their dance careers until the late 1970s, whereupon they headed West.

In addition to dancing and filmmaking, the couple ran a construction business and raised horses together.

She has lived on a five acre homestead near the Angeles National Forest since 1985, along with a "menagerie of dogs, prized Arabian horses and rodeo cattle."
She also has a 20,000 acre ranch in New Mexico.

In a 2008 interview, Swayze stated that Niemi was the inspiration for his 1987 hit song, "She's Like the Wind".

Niemi is a licensed pilot and flew her husband to his cancer treatments before his death.