Tribute
FRANCES DORSEY
Remembered by Sherry Dorsey Cook
My sister Frances was born in Seattle, Washington on July 30, 1935. She was four and a half years older than I and a real glamour girl from the get-go. She included me in many of her social activities, especially when she invited me to go with her on her many dates (which started in earnest when she was 13 years old). I got to see a lot of movies that way! On the ice, I literally followed right behind her to learn her skating skills. The only problem was that she was left-handed (like our mother was) and thus, her jumps and spins on the ice were clockwise, to the right, which is the natural direction for a left-handed skater. So I, who was right-handed, also began jumping and spinning to the right, just like her. For me, learning to jump and spin the “wrong way” (for a right-hander) was easy for me but it was very difficult for my future skating coaches to accept. In spite of all their efforts to get me to rotate to the left, jumping and spinning “Frances’ way” was a habit of mine they never could break. By the age of 16 she was a prominent member of the U.S. Figure Skating team. She became a U.S. champion and during her second time representing the U.S. in the World Championships, she finished fifth. Frances was always one to two ability-levels higher than I was so we did not compete against each other. This probably helped me gain my own confidence. Sonya Dunfield told me that when they were competing in Milan in the World Championships, they liked to create their own diversions, such as when they lined up water glasses like pins in a bowling alley, then rolled oranges to knock the glasses down. My sister was truly megastar personified. When she and I trained at the World Arena at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, CO, she was so stunning on the ice that the hotel bellmen always tried to get off work early so they could watch Frances practice. That was when people started giving her the moniker “The Marilyn Monroe of the ice” and Ice Follies would bill her as such. Frances was determined, passionate, and disciplined in her skating career whether as a single ladies competitor, a show skater, or a choreographer. As an adult she was up at 4:30am every morning performing her hour or more of grueling stretches and then she was off to the ice rink to teach in full make up, and wearing stylish outfits. Richard Dwyer said that when she was the female soloist of the Ice Follies, a group of the show skaters went on a rafting trip
down the Colorado River and they all wondered how she would dress because she always looked so beautiful on the ice. Frances did not disappoint them. Instead of wearing practical, utilitarian clothes, she appeared each day in elegant western style outfits and always in full make up. Frances was always the star of the show. While traveling with the Ice Follies, Frances was given a movie screen test at Warner Brothers studio. However she was not interested in making the western movie that the studio proposed. Her dream was to be in a Sonja Henie film but in 1958, when Frances was 23, Ms. Henie made her last movie and retired from skating. For 25 years, Frances was the skating director of the Northbrook, Illinois, Sports Center. In addition, she directed their annual ice show which, with 1500 participating skaters, was the largest ice show in America. She continued to perform in such productions as Holiday on Ice and American on Ice, as well as the annual ice shows at the Northbrook Sports Center. Frances was also the author of the book ‘Creative Ice Skating.’ Ever the show skater, as her father walked her down the aisle at her wedding, Frances viewed the chapel overflowing with friends and gleefully exclaimed, “Look daddy, a full house!” While in Chicago, Frances contracted lung cancer from secondary cigarette smoke at a studio where she spent long hours recording music for the Northbrook ice shows. In spite of her grueling chemotherapy treatments, she diligently continued her fitness regime. More Magazine chose her as one of the 20 most physically fit cancer survivors in the U.S. The magazine brought her to Washington, DC, to be honored in a ceremony presided over by the then-Vice President’s wife, Tipper Gore. She later moved with her husband to Santa Fe, NM. There was no ice rink in the area at that time so Frances became interested in horsemanship. She bought two horses, learned dressage riding and collected animals. She accumulated a menagerie of 11 huge “ragdoll” cats (the males weighing up to 20 pounds each) plus five dogs, all of them living in the house. When the Santa Fe ice rink opened in 2000, Frances was able to return to her love of teaching ice skating and choreographing the club’s annual ice show. In fact, she had taught skating even on the day a blood vessel burst in her throat, causing her death. The people who spoke about Fran at the two memorial services for her praised her enthusiasm for skating and how she inspired each of them to be physically fit and the best in skating they could be. I like to remember her self-effacing humor about herself. No one could tell a funnier story than she about what went wrong for her in various situations in her life. She is survived by her daughter, Dorsey Lachner, her son, Comer Plummer, Jr. and me, her sister, Sherry Dorsey Cook. Contributions for a Frances Dorsey memorial park bench may be sent to Northbrook Park District Sports Center, Frances Dorsey Memorial Fund, 1730 Pfingsten Road, Northbrook, IL 60062. PS MAGAZINE
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