Wilma Glodean Rudolph (1940 - 1994)

Born 23 Jun 1940 in Bethlehem, Clarksville, Montgomery, Tennessee, United States

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 12 Nov 1994 at age 54 in Nashville, Davidson, Tennessee, United States

Problems/Questions Profile managers: US Black Heritage Project WikiTree [send private message] and Brent David [send private message]

Wilma Rudolph is a part of US Black history. Join: US Black Heritage Project Discuss: black_heritage

Biography

Wilma Rudolph is Notable.

Wilma was an Olympic medalist.

Wilma Rudolph was a Tennessean.

Wilma Rudolph was an American sprinter who overcame years of childhood paralysis from polio to become a world-record-holding Olympic champion and international sports icon at age 21. The first woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympic Games, in 1960 she was proclaimed the fastest woman in the world.^[1]

A daughter of Ed Rudolph and Blanche Pettus, she was born 23 June 1940 in St. Bethlehem, Tennessee.^[2] "St. B" was its own community when Wilma was born, and has since been annexed into the city of Clarksville, Tennessee. Her fame and popularity made her presence at civil rights protests almost instantly effective in her Clarksville, which fully desegregated all public facilities in 1963.^[1]

Wilma married William Ward in 1961;^[3] they had no children and divorced about a year and a half later,^[4] at around the same time that she graduated from Tennessee State University with a degree in elementary education in 1963. She retired from competition at the peak of her career and taught at Cobb Elementary School, where she attended as a child.^[1]

In 1963 she married Robert Eldridge,^[5] her high school sweetheart and the father of her first child, born in their senior year of high school.^[1] They had three additional children.

Her autobiography, Wilma: The Story of Wilma Rudolph, was published in 1977.^[1]

She was 54 when she died of cancer on 12 November 1994 in Nashville;^[1] she was buried at Edgefield Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery in Clarksville, Montgomery County, Tennessee.^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5} Wikipedia contributors, "Wilma Rudolph," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wilma_Rudolph&oldid=1036074871 (accessed August 2, 2021).
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Find a Grave, database and images (accessed 10 January 2021), memorial page for Wilma Glodean Rudolph (23 Jun 1940–12 Nov 1994), Find A Grave: Memorial #5532, citing Edgefield Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery, Clarksville, Montgomery County, Tennessee, USA; Maintained by Find A Grave.
3. ↑ "Wilma, Husband Hope to Team Up in '64 Olympics," The Nashville Banner, 29 Nov 1961, p. 32, col. 1 news clipping.
4. ↑ "Wilma Rudolph Receives Degree," The Valley Times, 28 May 1963, p. 18, col. 2, news clipping.
5. ↑ "Wilma Rudolph Married," The Leaf-Chronicle, (Nashville, Tennessee) 22 Jul 1963, p. 2, col. 1 news clipping.

See also:

• Wilma Rudolph, Wikipedia
• Wilma Rudolph, National Women's Hall of Fame

Acknowledgments

• Thank you to Brent David for creating WikiTree profile Rudolph-229 through the import of David_Wagers_Krieg_Hudson Fami (1).ged on Nov 4, 2013. Click to the Changes page for the details of edits by Brent and others.