OCALA, Fla. -- Emma Culpepper, the adoptive mother of Miami Dolphins quarterback Daunte Culpepper, has died. She was 92.

Daunte Culpepper told The Associated Press his adoptive mother died at her home in Ocala on Saturday. The cause of death was not immediately known, but Daunte Culpepper said she suffered from Alzheimer's disease.

He said Emma Culpepper raised as many as 15 children, none of whom was biologically hers.

"She was basically just on a mission always to help people. Anybody that touched her life, she was always trying to better them," said Daunte Culpepper, who has been slowed by 2005 knee surgery. "She instilled some great values in me and let me know it's not where you're at, but where you're going."

Her husband, John Culpepper, died in 1977, the year Daunte Culpepper was born. She took him in when he was a day old, Daunte Culpepper said.

"It was the best thing that happened to me in my whole life," he said. "I never really had a man in my life. She was my mother and my father."

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press

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She adopted 15 kids, including Daunte when she was 62?

I'm 34 and my one that doesn't live with me stresses me enough to never want another...

What a special woman.

I watched the little documentary they did of him for that one FOX SportsNet show where they go behind the music (but for athletes..forget the name now) and I really, really appreciated his story, because it's one of those where you're just amazed about the strength of people and their ability to touch lives.

I think the deal with her taking Daunte was, his mother was incarcerated when she was pregnant with him and he asked Emma to take Daunte so he wouldn't funneled into the foster care system and she said no, because she'd had so many other kids or whatever.

But when she had Daunte, the mother used Emma Culpepper's name anyway and so they brought him to her when he was a day old and she took him and that was that.

Apparently, after his mom got out of jail and got a job and taking care of stuff, she came back to get him and he was with her really briefly, but that he didn't want to be with her, he wanted to go back to Emma and so...yeah.

It was an interesting story and sad, but it's great that she got to see him shine a bit before she went.