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Helen Herring Stephens  1918 - 1994

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• Birth	3 Feb 1918	, Callaway, Missouri, USA
  Gender	Female
  Died	17 Jan 1994	Saint Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, USA
  Obituary	18 Jan 1994	Saint Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, USA
  	St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  	HELEN STEPHENS DIES AT 75; '36 OLYMPIAN GRABBED GOLD Helen Stephens, whose legs propelled her off a farm in Missouri into glory in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, died Monday (Jan. 17, 1994) at Christian Hospital Northeast in north St. Louis County. Death apparently stemmed from complications from a stroke. Miss Stephens was 75 and lived in Florissant. She won two gold medals in the '36 Olympics. She said her track career had begun as a girl, when she read a book about track star Babe Didrikson. When Miss Stephens finished the book, she told her mother that she, too, would one day be an Olympic star. First, she started racing for her high school team in 1933. On the day she tried out, her coach thought his stopwatch was malfunctioning, because Miss Stephens unofficially shattered a world record. But until March 22, 1935, when she was a 17-year-old high school senior, Miss Stephens had never been farther than 25 miles from her family's farm near Fulton , in Callaway County. That day, she arrived in St. Louis for the national indoor track championships at The Arena, toting borrowed tracktogs. In the 50-meter dash, the 6-foot-tall Miss Stephens tied the national record of 6.6 seconds - and beat a member of Poland's 1932 Olympic team, Stella Walsh (Walasiewicz), then among the world's best-known women athletes. The meaning of the victory went over the head of this farm girl. When asked how it felt to beat the famous Stella Walsh, Miss Stephens asked, in all innocence: "Who's Stella Walsh?" The line would follow her around for the rest of her life. When the '36 Olympics rolled around, Miss Stephens was a student at her hometown college, William Woods. In Berlin, she ran with the American women's relay team, winning a gold medal, and she picked up an individual gold medal for the 100-meter dash. In the 100-meter event, she set a record (11.5 seconds) that stood until Wilma Rudolph broke it in 1960. In that race, Miss Stephens triumphed again over Poland's Walsh. And she caught the eye of none other than Adolf Hitler. After the event, the German dictator sent a messenger down to the field to inform Miss Stephens that he would like to meet her. But Miss Stephens, who spoke no German and was flushed with victory, paid him no attention. Within a few minutes, the director of the Third Reich's sports programs arrived to ask Miss Stephens why she was insulting the Fuehrer. Abashed, she followed him to Hitler's private box, where she shook hands, got Hitler's autograph and told him through an interpreter that despite Germany's scenic beauty, "I would still take Missouri, any time." Another member of that four-woman Olympic relay team of 1936 also was a Missourian, Harriet Bland Green of Webster Groves, who died in 1991. Miss Stephens' career as an amateur lasted only 2 1/2 years but brought her 14 major gold medals. In addition to her record in the 100-meter dash, she held American indoor records for 50 meters, the shot put and the standing broad jump, and outdoor records for the 100- and 220-yard dashes, plus the Canadian indoor record for 220 yards. When Miss Stephens exploded into fame in the mid-1930s, the newspapers, in the gee-whiz journalism of the day, dubbed her "The Fulton Flash" and "the Missouri Express." The papers also trumpeted her rustic background and made her sound like something out of a Judy Canova movie. When she visited New York in December 1936, she is supposed to have said she wanted "to see how much hay Radio City will hold." (The answer: "Quite a pile.") If Miss Stephens was ever really a bumpkin, she polished herself by rubbing elbows with such dignitaries as Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan. But a friend, June Beck of Olivette, recalled that in television interviews, Miss Stephens could reach back, retrieve her farm girl's drawling twang and use it to disarming affect. In 1937, Miss Stephens decided to cash in her chips and turn professional. For the next few years, she cut a colorful swath through sports. Among other things, she: Traveled with the old House of David baseball team, giving displays of her speed afoot and her strength with the shot put. Played women's pro basketball. Ran in exhibitions against another '36 Olympic star, the famous Jesse Owens - and once lost to him by only a few yards. Raced a midget auto in the 100-yard dash - and gave the car a 10-yard head start because its driver had to shift gears. Used the press to continue a feud with Walsh, the Polish Olympian. "I could beat her barefoot," Miss Stephens once said. In World War II, Miss Stephens worked at the old Curtiss-Wright aircraft plant at Lambert Field. Shortly before the war ended, she joined the Marines. Later, she went to work for the Defense Mapping Agency here as a research librarian. Miss Stephens retired in the '70s, although the word "retired" was relative. She took pains to keep up with the correspondence that kept flooding in even decades after her Olympic feats, answering each letter personally, Beck said. For a time in the '80s, Miss Stephens was a coach with the William Woods women's track team, and in this area, she was active in women's bowling. Miss Stephens jumped at the chance to take part in the Senior Olympics here and the Show-Me Games in Columbia, always carrying the Olympic torch. She competed as recently as last summer. Halls of fame of all sorts inducted her. Among them: the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in Jefferson City, the Missouri Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, the National Track and Field Hall of Fame, the U.S. Track and Field Hall of Fame, the Helms Hall of Fame in Los Angeles, the Women's Sports Foundation Hall of Fame and the Missouri Track Coaches Hall of Fame. Just last October, the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, N.Y., inducted her, along with such notables as Gloria Steinem, Rosa Parks and Georgia O'Keeffe. Miss Stephens never married; her only survivor is a brother, Robert Stephens of Hot Springs Village, Ark. Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the White-Mullen Mortuary, 118 North Florissant Road in Ferguson. The funeral service will be held there at 10:30 a.m. Thursday. She will be buried back home, at Callaway Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Fulton . Memorial contributions may be made to the William Woods College Sports Scholarship Fund.
  Name	The Fulton Flash
  _STAT	Never Married
  Buried	Callaway Memorial Gardens, Fulton, Callaway, Missouri, USA
  Person ID	I4254	Herring Family of Callaway County, Missouri
  Last Modified	15 Jun 2010
  Father	Frank Elmer Stephens,   b. 22 Mar 1889, , Callaway, Missouri, USA ,   d. 10 Jun 1963
  Mother	Bertie Mae Herring,   b. 30 Apr 1894, Dixie, Callaway, Missouri, USA ,   d. 3 Nov 1959, Fulton, Callaway, Missouri, USA
  Married	2 Sep 1916	Herring Home, , Callaway, Missouri, USA
  Family ID	F946	Group Sheet

• Photos		Stephens, Helen Herring Helen Herring Stephens, Olympic Gold Medal winner, 1936. Famous as the "Fulton Flash". She was my 3rd cousin once removed.
  		Stephens, Helen and Robert Helen, age 9, and Robert, age 4. Picture taken in 1928 in Fulton Missouri. She was a daughter of Frank Stephens and Bertie Mae Herring.
  		Stephens, Helen Herring Helen Herring Stephens at the Show-me State games, 1983.
  		Stephens, Helen Herring Helen Herring Stephens and Jessie Owens at the Berlin 1936 Olympics
  Headstones		Helen Herring Stephens Helen H. Stephens "The Fulton Flash" February 3, 1918 - January 17, 1994. Winner of two gold medals in the 1936 summer olympics in Berlin, Germany. The 100 meter dash and the 400 meter relay. Helen Herring Stephens was a daughter of Frank Elmer Stephens and Bertie Mae Herring. She was a granddaughter of William Isaac Stephens and Elizabeth Shaw,…

• Notes

  Helen Herring Stephens, winner of two gold medals in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin Germany. The 100 meter dash and the 400 meter relay team. On August 4, 1936, eighteen-year-old Helen Stephens set the Olympic world record for the 100-meter event at 11.5 seconds. Her record stood for twenty-four years until Wilma Rudolph beat it in the 1960 Olympics. On August 9, Stephens was the anchor in the 400-meter relay team that also set a world record time of 46.9 seconds. She received a gold medal for each event. Stephens had fulfilled her childhood dream. She was the fastest woman runner in the world and held that title for 24 years. After winning three more U.S. national titles (50 meters, shot put, 200 meters), Stephens retired from competitive track. During her 30-month career, she competed in more than 100 races, winning every one of them. She and Jesse Owens headlined a tour before Stephens moved on to briefly play professional basketball and softball. Stephens initiated another first in 1938 when she started "The Helen Stephens Olympic Co-Eds," becoming the first woman to create, own and manage a semiprofessional basketball team, which remained active until 1952. During the war, Stephens worked at an aircraft plant in St. Louis before enlisting in the Women's Reserve of the U.S. Marines. Afterwards, she became a research librarian for the Defense Mapping Agency Aerospace Center in St. Louis. She held this job for thirty years, until her retirement in 1976. During the 1980s, while in her 60s, Stephens returned to competitive track-and-field in senior events, maintaining her perfect record. She enjoyed bowling, golf, and swimming. She competed in multiple events in several Senior Olympics and clocked the fastest speeds and longest distances in her age category. At age sixty-eight, Stephens ran the 100-meter dash in 16.4 seconds, just 4 seconds slower than when she was eighteen. She carried the torch for the first nine Show-Me State Games in Columbia, Missouri, as well as the Senior Olympic games. She inspired teenagers and senior citizens alike to exercise and work for good health, which helped her become honored in the National Track and Field Hall of Fame, the US Track and Field Hall of Fame and the Women's Sports Foundation Hall of Fame. Helen was 6 feet tall, her height inherited from the Herring side of the family. She was several inches taller than her father when she was a young teenager. When Stephens entered high school in Fulton, the athletic director discovered her running talent. In 1933, when she was 15 years old, all the students had to run the 50-yard dash in physical education class. The coach, Burton W. Moore, measured her time--an incredible 5.8 seconds. That time matched the current world record set by Elizabeth Robinson. An incredulous Moore went to town and had his watch checked for accuracy by a jeweler, who verified that it was keeping correct time. Moore was astounded but unsure how to handle this prodigy who was not even fully-grown and who seemed to run so easily. In gym class she matched the current women's world record for the standing broad jump, but she loved to run more than anything. Moore decided she would make a good sprinter and began training her for international competition. The William Woods University Helen Stephens Sports Complex was named for Helen. There is a book titled "The Fulton Flash" about her life. There are more than a few inacuracies in this book. Descriptions of Fulton and where relevent places in the area are many times incorrect. There are several references to my father in the book which are totally inaccurate.. The author also seemed to think no one in the county named Herring was any relation to Helen Stephens. The book also assumes that the name Herring must have been from German descent, but it was English. The book is interesting, there are some old family photos included. Not everything in this book is accurate. Helen Herring Stephens had a very interesting life without the author embelishing and changing some of the facts. Helen Herring Stephens lived in Florissant, Missouri with her partner of 41 years, Mabel Robbe, until Robbe's death in 1986.

• Event Map

  Event Birth - 3 Feb 1918 - , Callaway, Missouri, USA Died - 17 Jan 1994 - Saint Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, USA Obituary - St. Louis Post-Dispatch - 18 Jan 1994 - Saint Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, USA Buried - - Callaway Memorial Gardens, Fulton, Callaway, Missouri, USA  = Link to Google Maps   = Link to Google Earth