Detroit Tigers

Mike Ilitch helped pay for Rosa Parks' housing for more than a decade

Updated Mar. 5, 2020 1:05 a.m. ET

Sports Illustrated, SI Wire/Sports Illustrated

Mike Ilitch, the former Detroit Tigers owner and Little Caesars founder who died last week, spent more than a decade paying for Rosa Parks' apartment.

The Sports Business Daily reported in 2014 that Ilitch paid for Parks' apartment until her death in 2005.

Damon Keith, a Detroit native and federal judge, helped Parks find a new home after she was robbed and assaulted in 1994. Keith showed a copy of a 1994 check for $2,000 from Little Caesars Enterprises as evidence of Illitch's good deed.

Illitch died on Friday at the age of 87.