Ruth Stafford Peale, widow of Rev. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale and co-founder of the global outreach ministry, Guideposts, died at her home Wednesday. She was 101.

Peale and her husband began the Guideposts organization in 1945, along with a magazine holding the same name. Together they spread a message of "positive thinking" and faith to millions.

Before her death, Peale was named chairman of Guideposts, which recently launched an online prayer community, OurPrayer.org. The Ruth Stafford Peale Prayer Network already receives some 600,000 prayer request a year.

Peale once said she saw her mission as standing behind her husband Norman, who was known as one of the foremost preachers in the 20th century. In 1942, she published her first book, "I Married a Minister," and 29 years later, a semi-autobiography, "The Adventure of Being a Wife." Norman passed in 1993.

Peale, an Iowa native, leaves behind her two daughters, a son, eight grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.

Sources: CBN News, The Associated Press, Guideposts