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Lillian Ellison, "Fabulous Moolah" of wrestling fame, dies at 84
COLUMBIA, S.C. --
Lillian Ellison, who as the Fabulous Moolah became the first woman inducted into the World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Fame, has died. She was 84.
Ellison died Friday, according to Dunbar Funeral Home in Columbia.
Born Mary Lillian Ellison in 1923, she learned to wrestle for the professional ring in the 1940s and became champ in 1956 when she defeated Judy Grable in a tournament final. She held on to the title for the next 28 years, according to the WWE Web site.
She lost the title in 1984, but came back 15 years later to reclaim it while in her 70s.
"I love old people and I love babies," she told The State newspaper in 2005. "And if anybody else steps in my way, I'll just kick (their butt). That's the way it is."
Her autobiography, "The Fabulous Moolah: First Goddess of the Squared Circle," was published in 2003.
She grew up in the small Kershaw County community of Tookiedoo, the youngest of 13 children and the only girl. She and her father would go to local professional wrestling matches on Tuesday nights, but everything changed when she met Mildred Burke, the most famous woman wrestler of the 1940s.
Burke taught Ellison how to wrestle for the ring and after a brief stint as a valet to male wrestlers, Ellison got into the ring herself. She was dubbed the Fabulous Moolah after saying she wrestled "for the money ... for the moolah."
Her signature move was the backbreaker, according to the WWE.
"She was famous, but I never looked at her that way," her daughter, Mary Austin, 66, told The State. "She was just Mom, someone that was always there for me. Someone I could turn to."
Austin said her mother had six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren, loved her family and wrestling.
Her obituary from the funeral home lists 63-year-old Katie Glass of Columbia as Ellison's adopted daughter. Glass, known as "Diamond Lil," was a professional midget wrestler for 25 years. She said she was just 17 when she moved to Columbia to live with Ellison and learn to wrestle.
"She just taught me the basics, the holds, how to get somebody down, lock them down and everything," Glass told The State.
Glass said she will miss Ellison.
"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."
