If you listen to the radio show hosted by former Pittsburgh Steelers Tunch Ilkin and Craig Wolfley, you probably have no idea who Blanche Kiesel is. But chances are, you are quite familiar with the opinions of “Babe from Penn Hills.”

That’s the handle Ms. Kiesel used in her frequent calls to the “Tunch and Wolf” show over the last decade or so to offer her opinions about the performance of the Steelers, good or bad.

Ms. Kiesel became so well known by the show’s hosts that they twice invited her to sit with them while they were doing remote broadcasts, including one at the Church Brew Works in Lawrenceville, said Diane Truszkowski, her daughter.

“For them to bring her up on the dais and let her sit there the whole show, she was just thrilled. I mean, you would have thought she won a million dollars to let her sit up there with them,” she said.

Blanche “Babe” Nora Ann Kiesel, formerly of Penn Hills, died April 16 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. She was 90.

“I remember Babe from Penn Hills very well,” Mr. Ilkin said. “She was just a sweetheart. She was very knowledgeable about the game of football. She was very incisive and she was always fun.”

On Saturday, Mr. Ilkin recalled the Church Brew Works broadcast that involved Ms. Kiesel.

“We sat together. We ate. We laughed. She wasn’t just a listener of the show. She was a friend of the show’s,” he said. “She was a very knowledgeable Steelers fan, a football fan, and she was just a classy lady, too. Classy and sweet.”

Ms. Kiesel accumulated her knowledge of sports raising six sons to go along with three daughters. “I guarantee you that she knew what she was talking about. She just knew sports. She watched it constantly,” Ms. Truszkowski said.

She was passionate about the Steelers, finding kinship with the team through former defensive end Brett Keisel, whose last name is similar to hers and whose jersey she worn on game days.

Ms. Kiesel never missed a game and attended many of the team’s Super Bowl appearances. One time, Ms. Truszkowski had to convince doctors and nurses to let her mother watch the Steelers play while she was recovering in a hospital intensive care unit.

“They were afraid she would get too excited,” she said.

Born on Feb. 23, 1925, in Fairmont, W.Va., Ms. Kiesel spent part of her childhood in Fairmont before moving to Shadyside, where she graduated from Sacred Heart High School in 1942 when she was just 16 years old.

Ms. Kiesel spent more than 25 years working as a telephone operator at Bell Telephone and AT&T before retiring in 1990.

She was a past president of the Central Catholic Mothers’ Guild. The Kiesels were one of the founding families of the St. Bartholomew Catholic Church in Penn Hills.

While juggling her career, Ms. Kiesel found time to raise nine children. She was a single mom for many of those years. “She worked and took care of us and gave us a very good life,” Ms. Truszkowski said. “She raised us and we turned out very well.”

Ms. Kiesel loved to travel and gamble. She visited Ireland twice while she was in her 80s. She made frequent trips to Las Vegas and Denver, where a son lived, and also made trips to Phoenix and Atlantic City.

Besides Ms. Truszkowski, she is survived by two other daughters, Rene Fitzgerald of Regent Square and Debbie Ryan of Penn Hills; three sons, John of Arvada, Colo., Mark of Plum, and David of Penn Hills; a sister, Patricia Sperling of North Huntingdon; and 17 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

Among those who preceded her in death were three sons, James, William, and Joseph Kiesel.

Friends will be received today from 1 to 7 p.m. at Charles W. Trenz Funeral Home, 11110 Frankstown Road, Penn Hills. A Mass will be said at 10 a.m. Monday at St. Bartholomew Church, 111 Erhardt Drive, Penn Hills. Interment will be in Mt. Carmel Cemetery.

Mark Belko: mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262.

First Published: April 19, 2015, 4:00 a.m.