My Life as "The Wrasslin Queen"

Since I was 14 years old, I have loved pro wrasslin as it was called in the South in the late '70's early '80's. I grew up in a nice middle class family but had things happen to me when I was younger that caused me to become depressed & withdraw from society. Than my Grammie was watching wrasslin one day & I saw Ric Flair. Man I was hooked from that day forward. Flair, Johnny Weaver, Wahoo McDaniels, Paul Jones, Dusty Rhodes etc were guys I watched every weekend. Then along comes this gorgeous Hawaiian name Richard Blood but went by Ricky Steamboat. Now he was stunning & I became a huge fan of his.

I got to go to the Charlotte Coliseum & watch wrasslin in person. I remember seeing Ricky Steamboat for the first time & was in awe of how gorgeous he was. I got the nerve up to do a drawing for him & when I gave it to him, he smiled. I also in my high school years got to write articles for "The Young Observer" which was part of The Charlotte Observer about pro wrasslin. The biggest thrill was the night they arranged for me to meet Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood. I got my picture with them. So much fun.

I remember getting a reputation with Carolina wrasslin fans as the most well known Steamboat fan so much that in high school they just called me "Steamboat". I run into fellow students today who don't remember my name but call me "Steamboat".

I had the pleasure in 1985 of meeting Bonnie Hastings who was engaged to Steamboat. She had heard so much about me & wanted to see my huge Steamboat scrapbook. I bought it to a wrestling event & she loved it. Bonnie & I became friends.

I went to a private art school in Atlanta in 1985. I started going to TBS to watch live tv wrasslin tapings for Superstation TBS. That was so much fun. I met a lot of new lifelong friends there who we are still friends today. I even remember Referee Teddy Long before he became famous as a manager. Jackie Crockett was a cameraman & he was a sweetheart. Everytime I bought some artwork, he would show it on tv.

I started to get known as a Flair fanatic since Steamboat wasn't around. I was even in a commercial Flair did for the 4 Horsemen. That was so much fun when it was filmed at the studio.