Marilyn Meeker (born February 16, 1942) is an American former

ice dancer Ice dance (sometimes referred to as ice dancing) is a discipline of figure skating that historically draws from ballroom dancing. It joined the World Figure Skating Championships in 1952, and became a Winter Olympic Games medal sport in 1976. A ...

. With partner Larry Pierce, she captured the junior title at the 1959 U.S. Championships. Competing on the senior level the following year, they won the silver medal at the 1960 U.S. Championships and placed fifth at the 1960 World Championships. Meeker broke her ankle in training in December 1960, six weeks before the 1961 U.S. Championships. Pierce joined forces with

Diane Sherbloom Diane Carol "Dee Dee" Sherbloom (September 21, 1942 – February 15, 1961) was an American figure skater who competed in ice dance. Previously paired with Roger Campbell, she had no intentions of competing at the 1961 United States Figure Skatin ...

and won the gold medal at Nationals. Pierce and Sherbloom were killed, along with the rest of the U.S. Figure Skating team, when their plane (

Sabena Flight 548 Sabena Flight 548 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Idlewild Airport in New York City to Brussels Airport in Belgium. On 15 February 1961, the Boeing 707-329 operating the flight crashed on approach to Brussels Airport, kill ...

) crashed near

Brussels, Belgium Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

on the way to the World Championships. As of March 2025, Marilyn (Meeker) Durham resides in

New Braunfels, Texas New Braunfels ( ) is a city in Comal County, Texas, Comal and Guadalupe County, Texas, Guadalupe counties in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat of Comal County. The city covers and had a population of 90,403 as of the 2020 United Sta ...

with her husband of 63 years, John. They have two adult children, Diana and Mark, and two 32-year-old granddaughters Sarah and Sterling. Durham attended the 2011 National Championships in Greensboro, South Carolina, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1961 World Team disaster. She stated that she finally found closure at this event, which she attended at the insistence of her close friend Sandy Schwomeyer Lamb. She and Larry Pierce both attended Broad Ripple High School.Roche, Al
"Years Of Work Pay Off For City Skaters"
''

The Indianapolis Star } ''The Indianapolis Star'' (also known as ''IndyStar'') is a morning daily newspaper that began publishing on June 6, 1903, in Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. It has been the only major daily paper in the city since 1999, whe ...

'', Indianapolis, Indiana, volume 56, number 241, February 1, 1959, section 4, page 3. Upon graduation, she attended

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a state university system, system of Public university, public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. The system has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration o ...

Results

(with Larry Pierce)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meeker, Marilyn 1942 births Living people 21st-century American women American female ice dancers Sportspeople from New Braunfels, Texas Indiana University alumni 20th-century American sportswomen