Johnnie Mae Young, a pioneering female wrestler who has died aged 90, had the distinction of being the only known professional in the sport to have wrestled in nine different decades.
Known as “the Great Mae Young”, she was a member of the World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Fame. “There will never be another Mae Young,” said Vince McMahon, the chairman and chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment.
Johnnie Mae Young was born in Sand Springs, Oklahoma, in 1923. She started off in the sport at the age of 15 as a member of the boys' wrestling team in her high school after she was taught the tricks and techniques by her four brothers.
Signature move
Young began her professional wrestling career in 1939. Her signature move was called the "Bronco Buster", in which the attacker jumps up and down on a seated opponent's chest, sometimes in a sexually suggestive way.
While potential male wrestlers were off fighting in the second World War, Young and other women made inroads in the sport. She helped open Canadian wrestling to women and was among the first female wrestlers to tour postwar Japan in 1954.
After several decades of performing, she turned her attention to training and coached her longtime friend Lillian Ellison, known as “the Fabulous Moolah”.
Hall of Fame
Ellison was the first female member of the WWE's Hall of Fame. She died in 2007.
Young became the third woman to receive the honour when she was inducted in 2008.
In their later years, Young and Ellison shared a home and sports complex in Columbia, South Carolina, where they trained would-be wrestlers.
They also made comic appearances in televised WWE events.
Young died at her home in Columbia, where she had been under hospice care.