Friends wrestle with loss of Fabulous Moolah

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Friends wrestle with loss of Fabulous Moolah

Famed female wrestler from Columbia dies at age 84

By LEE HIGGINS - lhiggins@thestate.com


SPECIAL TO THE STATE
Lillian Ellison, aka The Fabulous Moolah

• Gallery | Remembering The Fabulous Moolah
• FabulousMoolah.com
• WWE.COM | Classic Moolah videos
• WWE.COM | Remembering Moolah
• WWE.COM | Classic Moolah photos
• From the archives: For the love of Moolah

In the scripted, fabulist world of wrestling, the Fabulous Moolah was all real.
She wore bling before anyone called it that. She was a showman who clearly was all-lady.
“I love old people and I love babies,” she told The State in 2005. “And if anybody else steps in my way, I’ll just kick (their butt). That’s the way it is.”
The Fabulous Moolah, the legendary female wrestler who called Columbia home and became the first female inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame, died Friday.
She was 84.
Born Mary Lillian Ellison in 1923, she was raised in the Tookiedoo neighborhood near Blythewood — the youngest and only girl of 13 children. Her mother died of cancer when Ellison was 8.
Father-daughter time for Ellison meant attending weekly pro wrestling matches in Columbia.
Ellison was trained in the ring in the 1940s by then-women’s champion Mildred Burke — the sport’s biggest star at the time, according to the WWE.
Moolah held the world’s championship for 28 years, from 1956 to 1984.
The next year, she won it again for two more years.
In 1999, at age 76, she reclaimed the title for a final time.
She acquired her “Moolah” moniker when a wrestling promoter asked her why she wanted to wrestle.
Her response: “For the money! I want to wrestle for the moolah!”
Moolah’s signature move? The “Backbreaker,” according to WWE.
Her daughter, Mary Austin, 66, of Myrtle Beach, said Saturday night from her mother’s home on Moolah Drive that Ellison, who had six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren, loved her family and wrestling.
“She was famous, but I never looked at her that way,” Austin said. “She was just Mom, someone that was always there for me. Someone I could turn to.”
Professional wrestlers mourned the loss on the WWE Web site.
Katie Glass, 63, of Columbia, also known as “Diamond Lil,” a former professional midget wrestler for 25 years, was taken under Ellison’s wing when she was 17.
Glass saw Ellison wrestle in Richmond, Va. Ellison took Glass to live with her in Columbia and coach her.
“She just taught me the basics, the holds, how to get somebody down, lock them down and everything,” Glass said Saturday night.
Glass is struggling with the death.
“It’s gonna be hard, I’ll tell you. We’re doing the best we can. She was there for me. She’s a very nice lady. I’m gonna miss her dearly and I love her very much.”
In 2005, Ellison was featured in a documentary film, “Lipstick & Dynamite: The First Ladies of Wrestling.” Moolah also wrote an autobiography, “The Fabulous Moolah: First Goddess of the Squared Circle.”
Funeral arrangements have not been set.




The State | 11/04/2007 | Friends wrestle with loss of Fabulous Moolah